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anonymous complaints, broken windows policing, Castle doctrine, Ferguson Effect, Gov. Pritzker, Illinois, Illinois Legislature Black Caucus, no bail laws, normal Americans, own recognizance, Safe-T-Act, social contract, stand your ground, the three S's, warrant alternatives
This is an article about cop knowledge, cop wisdom. Cops know Normal Americans—rational people—sometimes, somewhat, resent them. They’re driving along, see a police car, and in a slight panic, check their speedometer. They might get a ticket, but because they’re rational people, because they understand the absolutely necessary place of the police in the rule of law, they might grumble a bit, but quickly put it behind them. When others get a ticket and complain “I wasn’t doin’ nothin’,” they nod and smile because they know that’s almost certainly bullshit. Cops also know when people are in trouble and the police arrive, Normal Americans are never quite so glad to see anyone.
Cops know bad will is cumulative, and most people don’t see individuals, merely the uniform, the blue suit. So professional, thoughtful cops, people who know human nature—they don’t survive emotionally or otherwise for long if they don’t—do their best never to contribute to that resentment. They treat people as kindly as people let them. Most people understand they’re doing their very necessary jobs. Some people are just assholes.
Cops also understand broken windows policing. It’s a matter of experience and understanding human nature. If a window in a building—home, business, factory, etc.—is broken and goes unrepaired for long, every window will quickly be broken, eventually, the place will be torched. It’s a metaphor of sorts. If small things, misdemeanors, quality of life crimes, go unenforced, assholes will take advantage and soon, very soon, really bad things happen.
Allow homeless encampments, let people sleep in business doorways or on sidewalks, let people shit and piss everywhere, let people shoot up and smoke pot in public, refuse to enforce trespassing laws—we’ll come back to this one—let the little things go, and society begins to fall apart. Normal people begin to sense they’re nothing but prey, and predators, and the D/S/C politicians who use and encourage them, love it.
Then there’s the next level of insanity. If the police are prevented from making arrests, or are afraid to make arrests, if prosecutors won’t prosecute, if criminals are released as soon as their paperwork is processed or even before, if there’s no bail, if predators are released from jail after serving a fraction of their rare and short sentences, society is actively falling apart.
That’s a breach of the social contract, one that can’t be easily repaired, if it can be repaired at all. Normal Americans are willing to loan their power to establish law and order to the police and prosecutors and the courts in return for making daily life possible. They keep the assholes and predators at bay. People can take walks, go shopping, leave their homes in general without having to fear they’ll be beaten, robbed, raped or killed. Tomorrow is never guaranteed, but Normal Americans know the difference between law and order and defund the police and reform the justice system. Cops know they absolutely don’t want Normal Americans to believe, or worse to know, they’re on their own. When that happens, or when it gets close, sane police officers will retire, move to a state where the rule of law still exists, or take up another profession entirely. They’ll do that because people will demand of them: “why the hell should I listen to you? You’re useless!” They know they won’t have a good answer.
What remains for Normal Americans is discovering how much further things can deteriorate before they have no choice but to take matters into their own hands, which means the three S’s: shoot, shovel and shut up. That’s when they find out who their real friends are, who they can rely on to help S, S and S.
And what happens when that contract is breached? As we continue, gentle readers, ask yourself what the state of Illinois—and similar blue states—would be doing differently if they were purposely trying to destroy their state, and with it, America?
We begin with what has already been done in Chicago. In response to the justified shooting of a gun-toting teenager who ran from police, Chicago police can no longer pursue fleeing criminals. They may pursue some very narrow classes of offenders, but that class is so narrow, so hard to identify in the heat of the moment, for all intents and purposes, all crooks have to do to get away is merely flee, and the police simply watch and wave goodbye. But that wasn’t enough, no, for state politicians. They had to outdo even the D/S/C lunatics ruling Chicago, where breakfast table conversation is: “how many got shot overnight?” Courtesy of Legal Insurrection, we learn Illinois is now, for all intents and purposes, a no-bail state, even for arson, kidnapping, robbery and second degree murder(?!).
You mentioned trespassing; what about that? Throughout the entire state, all the police can do to a trespasser is write him a ticket. They can’t actually remove a trespasser from someone else’s property. This, and so much more, is all a part of the “Safe-T-Act,” which will go into effect on January 1, 2023. So if an Illinois resident comes home to find a homeless encampment on his front lawn, the police might—if there are enough of them and if they have time—write them tickets, but congratulations citizen! You are now responsible for as many squatters as choose to squat. If they just walk into an occupied home, same thing. And if someone decides to set up camp in a business, even at closing time, the police might write a ticket, but they don’t have to leave. The police can’t make them. Ever.
Why the emphasis on trespassing? Because our system was founded, in large part, to protect private property rights. If anyone can trespass unhindered, if they can’t be legally removed, do we have private property rights? Also, this is base level broken windows policing. If we’re not prepared to do that, we’re unilaterally surrendering to felonies. And of course, if we don’t uphold the social contract, people are going to recognize it’s broken, and handle things themselves. D/S/Cs would call this progress, but it’s regression to barbarism–and the three S’s, which is self-preservation.
Here are some of the other provisions of this civilization obliterating bill:
*Crooks, or anti-police “activists” can now file anonymous complaints against police officers to the state certification authority to get officers decertified. No certification, no police job in Illinois. Golly, you don’t suppose people–“activists,” say–will misuse this, do you?
*Police officers will have a legal duty to give medical aid “as soon as reasonably practical, whether as a result of use of force or otherwise.” As all cops know, many crooks use complaints of medical issues to delay going to jail, to try to find ways to escape, and to gin up false charges of police brutality. Police officers are not trained and certified as emergency medical technicians. The law doesn’t give them immunity for doing anything wrong, but it does create another way to sue officers, or get cases dismissed.
I’ll include this one in its entirety:
Release on Own Recognizance: Creates a presumption to release a defendant on personal recognizance on the condition that the defendant attends all required court proceedings, does not commit any criminal offense and complies with all terms of pretrial release. Additional conditions of release shall be set only when it is determined that they are necessary to assure the defendant’s appearance in court, assure the defendant does not commit any criminal offense, and complies with all conditions of pretrial release. Detention only shall be imposed when it is determined that the defendant poses a specific, real and present threat to a person, or has a high likelihood of willful flight. If the court decides to detain the defendant, the court must make a written finding as to why less restrictive conditions would not assure safety to the community and the defendant’s appearance in court. At each subsequent court hearing, the judge must find that continued detention or conditions imposed are necessary to avoid a specific, real and present threat to any person or willful flight from prosecution.
This is part of the no bail lunacy. The presumption used to be criminals wouldn’t show up in court, so they either bailed out, or sat in jail until at least an arraignment. Now, the law requires judges to cut them loose, even kidnappers, armed robbers and murderers. They can only keep them in jail if they fill out new and voluminous, and continuous paperwork. What this means is judges, even if they’re not criminal tongue- bathing leftists, will know politicians will be looking over their shoulder with every case, particularly if the criminal is black. Keep too many, perhaps any, felons in jail, and they could lose their jobs. Keeping in mind human nature, how many judges are going to jail crooks, for any reason? After all, the people have spoken; that’s what they want! Or at least the self-imagined elite people in power, anyway.
Here’s another one you have to read for yourself:
Options for warrant alternatives: Establishes procedures for when a defendant fails to comply with any pretrial release condition. The court may issue an order to show cause as to why the defendant’s pretrial release should not be revoked. A certified copy of the order must be served upon the person at least 48 hours in advance of the scheduled hearing. If the person does not appear at the hearing to show cause, the court may issue an arrest warrant. Allows the warrant to modify any previously imposed conditions rather than revoking pretrial release or issuing a warrant. Prevents the court from recording a failure to appear until the defendant fails to appear at the hearing to show cause. Prevents a non-appearance in court cured by an appearance at the hearing to show cause from being considered as evidence of the defendant’s future likelihood of failing to appear.
Remember, Illinois is now letting virtually everybody out without bail on their own recognizance, their solemn promise to appear on time, which is as good as gold because criminals are among our most reliable citizens, right? In the past, when a crook didn’t show up for a court date, a bench warrant was essentially automatic. Now, the courts have to issue a “show cause” order. In other words, the police have to try to find someone who doesn’t want to be found, and give them a piece of paper that asks them, pretty please, to come to court to explain to the judge why he shouldn’t put them in jail. I’m sure they’ll all realize they’re in real trouble, and show up in suit and tie and on time. There is nothing crooks fear more than an order to show cause. What this means is a mountain of additional paperwork, and a huge backlog of warrants, which means more work for police officers, who have to find and arrest the crooks who don’t want to be found, to take them to court, where they’ll probably be released on their O.R., and the whole process starts again. By the time a crook ever find himself in court, he’ll probably have 10 to 20 show cause orders and more bench warrants, and well as whatever charges are current.
Police 1 has this helpful graphic:
What’s happening in Illinois? The state’s one-party rule politicians have all but decriminalized crime. Not only that, they’ve all but emasculated the police, making it impossible to do their jobs, and much, much easier for them to be fired and/or sued. Being decertified in one state, or fired and sued, is pretty much the end of one’s law enforcement career in every state.
In 2023, Illinois is going to see a mass exodus of police officers, even more than it is already seeing. Those that can retire will, those that can find another police job in a sane state, will. And many will simply leave the profession altogether. Those that remain will be operating under a turbocharged version of the Ferguson Effect. They will do the absolute minimum, particularly where Black crooks are concerned. They’ll answer calls—as long as they’re not too dangerous or too likely to force them to physically arrest people—but other than that, they’ll do only enough to keep their jobs. Whether they actually do the job or pretend to do the job, it all pays the same. Response times will go from ridiculously slow to glacially slow, and there will be entire portions of cities that become no go zones, where the police will not enter. Three S’s.
What this means for Normal Americans is ugly indeed. Take the case of a trespasser who won’t leave. The police actually show up and give the guy a ticket, then leave. The trespasser is peeking in windows, banging on doors and windows, relieving himself on the lawn, flogging his junk for passersby, but the police have already done their duty, and they aren’t coming back. Should the unlucky homeowner threaten or physically remove the trespasser, might the police ignore that? They might, but it’s more likely the homeowner will be arrested for assault, and if they are, it’s a certainty they won’t get a ticket, or be released on their O.R. Honest officers in rural areas who try to do more will find themselves pursued by the state AG and will be charged and/or decertified. This is a political, Marxist purge, not a public safety matter, and certainly not “reform.” Honest officers throughout the state will quickly become defensive officers, forced to lie, forced to neglect their duty.
Illinois is not a stand your ground state, but it is a castle doctrine state. If attacked in one’s home, one need not flee, and may defend themselves, but not if attacked away from their home. In Illinois, beginning in 2023, oh hell, probably right now, any citizen who, even under the law, lawfully defends himself, is probably going to be one of the few murder suspects who actually end up in jail pending trial. Everyone in that state is on their own, but daring to protect their life or the lives of those they love could—likely will—cause them to lose everything.
On January 1, there will be, by law, no more broken windows policing in Illinois, a state where crime rates of all kinds, particularly violent crime, are already breaking records. Illinois is in deep fiscal trouble, yet one sure result of this criminal coddling lunacy is going to be an even greater exodus of Normal Americans, fleeing to safe, red states and cities, and taking their tax revenue with them. Businesses too, will leave, taking their tax revenue with them and pushing Illinois more deeply into a fiscal hole D/S/Cs continue to dig.
Republican state legislators are trying to repeal the law, but this is Illinois. The state legislature Black Caucus, as usual, are playing the race card:
LBC Joint Chair Sonya Harper, House Chair Kam Buckner, and Senate Chair Robert Peters said Illinois Republicans are using the same scare tactics seen across the country. Still, the Chicago Democrats stated they trust the public won’t fall for the GOP tactics.
‘As usual with the Republican Party, any effort to make the justice system fairer for Black people is called ‘dangerous,’ the ILBC leaders stated. ‘We are improving public safety, supporting law enforcement, and ending systemic injustice at the same time.”
Oh sure! That’s what they’re doing, because nothing ends systemic injustice like keeping the police from enforcing the law and giving them every incentive to flee the state.
So, back to our original question, gentle readers: if Illinois D/S/C politicians were actively trying to destroy their state, what, exactly, would they be doing differently?
Hey.. states rights, remember?
Yup, states rights. That’s what happens when Democrats are in charge…they gradually destroy every place they live. It’s their right and they’re very proud of it. If you can’t vote them out the only remaining option is to move elsewhere.
The problem is that Democrats eventually get tired of the policies that they enacted, but instead of changing them they just run away to a Republican state and begin voting in people that will enact the same stupid policies that they just fled from.
But, as you said Doug, it’s their right. You don’t seem upset though. Interesting.
Dear Ken H:
Ah yes, the laboratory of democracy, where each state can chart its own path and see what does and doesn’t work. On one hand, because we are all, for now, ostensibly Americans, I grieve that my fellow citizens, even if they don’t consider themselves such, have to live–and die–under such circumstances. On the other, what can sane people living under the Constitution and the Rule of Law in the red states do to help those people, other than to suggest they move to a blue state and leave their leftist ideology behind?
I generally find most situations have context one you get in an explore original intent. I’ve not yet had the time to dive into the Illinois/Chicago issues posted here (even though I am from there). I tend to side on a human side at first blush… and I don’t fall for fist blush generalizations when someone doesn’t like policy enough they fault some scrupulous deception and conspiracy… like “Dems want to destroy America” and somehow that emotionalism alone is supposed to convince me of something. I’m not prone to presume as a default that the “other side” wakes up every morning looking to screw with America. Although I realize many do.
Policies like these are going to cause someone to snap. An uptick in the 3 S’s, yes, but eventually someone is going to just decide they’ve had it with criminals, crooked politicians (I repeat myself), and their stooges in uniform. Or maybe they won’t. Some people seem to enjoy having a boot on their necks. Can’t understand it myself.
Dear optimisticallypessimistic:
That’s one of the dangers, and an inevitable consequence, of government violating the Constitution and the social contract. Either they’re too stupid to understand that–many are–or they’re hoping to push people into doing it, thinking they’re all-powerful and will then have an excuse to crush the semi-fascists. There aren’t enough federal law enforcement agents turned Stasi in the country to survive if they’re stupid and/or arrogant enough to push Americans over that line.
That’s actually quite correct. People will people will reach a point… or not… to affect change… or not. This becomes most illustrative as states start exercising greater states rights. The problems will start when idiots like DeSantis and Abbott pull stunts that affect other states when they have a beef with the Fed.
That’s actually quite correct. People will people will reach a point… or not… to affect change… or not. This becomes most illustrative as states start exercising greater states rights. The problems will start when idiots like DeSantis and Abbott pull stunts that affect other states when they have a beef with the Fed. More courtroom time a’commin’.
I wonder if the politicians in Illinois realize that once the good folks start using the 3 S’s that it won’t be long before those same good folks understand that it also can be used against worthless and evil politicians?
Agreed but the problem with that is the politicians are guarded by cops that will shoot back in self defense if nothing else.
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
Most of those cops will have quit and what is left are thugs. Much easier targets.
Dear Phil:
I fear they don’t understand how outnumbered they’ll be. Honest police officers understand the only reason they can do their jobs and survive is because most people are willing to obey most laws most of the time. When the social contract is broken, when the thin blue line is cut, all bets are off.
“And judgment is turned away backward,
and justice standeth afar off:
for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.”
— Isaiah 59:14
I don’t want any of this to happen. We can hope the voters wise up and start replacing these fools. That is always the preferred way. But if that doesn’t work or happen, something has to change.
Dear Phil:
Like you, I don’t want any of this to happen. I write the Second Civil War series as a warning, never a how-to-do manual. You’re correct: something has to change, and that something is a return to obeying the Constitution. I fear for far too many of the Left, that’s impossible.
It will get much, much worse when the Democrats decide to defund the police. They will cite systematic racism as an excuse to hire only racist black thugs who hate white, middle class people. We see this already with the 70,000 new IRS hires. The new police will then actively assist the criminals in robbing, assaulting, raping and murdering normal Americans.
Dear Elmer Fudd:
Mark me: this is all prelude to the establishment of a federal/national police force. The FBI is merely a trial balloon.
1984
Idiocracy
The Manchurian Candidate
V for Vendetta
And, now, The Purge.
Life imitates art.
Dear Tom:
As Mark Twain said: “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”
In the absence of a functional police force and judicial system many crimes and misdemeanors will effectively carry a death sentence. If the police are seen to act mainly in the defense of the criminal class they may find themselves targeted by vigilantes.
Dear Bob in Idaho:
As I’ve often pointed out, the criminal justice system and jails are as much to protect criminals from the public as the reverse. Initially, it is criminals who will bear citizen’s wrath. If such police officers as remain protect the crooks, they’ll be exposing themselves to that wrath.
Doug said:
“That’s actually quite correct. People will people will reach a point… or not… to affect change… or not. This becomes most illustrative as states start exercising greater states rights. The problems will start when idiots like DeSantis and Abbott pull stunts that affect other states when they have a beef with the Fed. More courtroom time a’commin’.”
What “stunt”? The Democrats voted for open borders. DeSantis just gave them exactly what they wanted.
Just like the people who voted for Biden and are now complaining about $5 gas and runaway inflation. As Obama once said: “Elections have consequences.” Vote for people who enact stupid policies and expect to pay the price.
Oh Please. DeSantis didn’t have migrants “laying about” to go into some Trump-mode so he intentionally “imports” them from Texas. Hey, if Texans are ok with 15 million plus tax dollars going to ship immigrants around then so be it. BTW.. the DeSantis bunch were seeking asylum legally from what I am reading. And.. there are no “open borders” policy like Trumpians like to imagine.
Dear Doug:
No opens borders policy, eh? OK then. I guess the border is secure, just like Kamala said.
Dear Ken H:
Quite so. D/S/Cs make the new rules and scream when Normal Americans make D/S/Cs live up to them.
I see something totally different about all this here…. which is sorta what I was referring to in another comment I replied to in here… there is ALWAYS context and claims of “lust for power” by the other is just emotionally driven nonsense. .
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/sep/14/facebook-posts/social-media-post-misleads-about-pretrial-detentio/
So, yet again, everyone will decide an issue totally based on their preferred source of “credible” information.
Doug, Politifact is left leaning and biased. Perhaps that explains why you think it’s a stunt when DeSantis move illegal aliens around but not when Biden or Obama did the same thing.
That’s the thing about people who lean left that you can always count on…they only think it’s wrong when the other side does it.
Exactly as I said.. no one will agree because it’s all about the source you select to believe in.
“That’s the thing about people who lean left that you can always count on…they only think it’s wrong when the other side does it.”
Well, that’s a bias you have to live with I suppose. I was firm GOP Liberal Conservative most my life, until Trump bastardized it and now I am Indy. It’s not so much I am “left leaning” but way more about disliking intensely Trump-the-man and the vulnerable-ness of so many Americans to want to follow him as if he were some all-wise savior. As for DeSantis… he’s the truly scary one.. he’s an authoritarian Trump-with-brains.
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