Nobody better than this journalist understands the political pendulum’s propensity to swing in an often equal and opposite reaction to the status quo. It’s the very nature of the beast. But the SAFE-T Act? That’s a case where the pendulum flew clean off the clock.
The Tribune already reported that, in the Act’s first 50 Cook County weeks, defendants failed to show up in court 74 percent of the time leading to record 31,393 outstanding arrest warrants. To be fair, some of those were issued before the Act went into effect.
I’m sure the CPD will round ‘em up in no time.
But now the grim reality of a truly terrible law has hit home in Elgin and someone’s dead as a result. And anyone with half a brain knew that the Springfield Black Caucus’ absurdly self-serving decision to tie judge’s hands when it comes to the mentally ill and many violent offenders would have dire consequences.
When I read about Anderson A. Contreras’ September felony assault arrest for randomly attacking a St. Charles’ Thompson middle schooler on the adjoining football field, I wondered if he’d be remanded. Contreras had no permanent residence, and no one randomly attacks a juvenile ON SCHOOL GROUNDS unless they have a serious mental illness. Given my lengthy history of working with the mentally ill, I’d bet my bottom dollar that we’re dealing with a paranoid schizophrenic.
Though the medical profession consistently moves the schizophrenia goal posts out of a bizarre political correctness, the vast majority of individuals afflicted are harmless. But the 1 to 2 percent who suffer from uncontrollable paranoid delusions can be quite dangerous.
Despite that attack, his obvious mental state, and Contreras being on pretrial supervision for an August domestic battery charge, Associate Judge Lawrence Lobb had no choice but to let Contreras go at bond call. Why? Because the Pre-Trial Fairness Act specifically categorizes Class 3 felony assault as a non-detainable offense, even if it’s against a police officer.
And the Black Caucus inserted that specific caveat in the law because they thought Chicago Police officers were using the charge as means of jailing black men while they awaited trial.
Worse yet, the law even goes as far as prohibiting Judge Lobb, or any judge for that matter, from considering a defendant’s prior acts. And let’s just say Mr. Contreras has been a very busy man:
- 2023 – Multiple felony batteries to a police officer
- 2022 – Felony damage to property
- 2022 – Felony attempt to disarm a police officer
- 2021 – Felony aggravated battery and damage to property
- 2018 – DUI
It kinda makes the DUI seem anticlimactic, doesn’t it? Because in an abundantly foreseeable possibility, still free, Contreras stabbed an Elgin man to death a mere 14 days later on October 12. I suppose we should thank our Springfield lucky stars that he’s finally being held in the Kane County jail.
Could presiding Judge William Engerman have issued an arrest warrant when Contreras failed to show up to answer the domestic violence charge on October 3? Nope! The SAFE-T act gives defendants a one free pass. The best a judge can do in that circumstance is issue a summons. But even if Engerman could’ve sicced the police on Contreras, how were they supposed to find one homeless man among Kane County’s half-a-million inhabitants?
Her general support of the Act notwithstanding, we can’t blame State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser for this one. If we could, I’d be the first one to point a finger. And I can’t think of a single Kane County ASA, who in light of that criminal record and three felony assault charges against a minor, would say, “Yeah Judge! Let him go.”
Not that he or she had any choice in the matter. Have I said that felony battery is a non-remand-able offense?
So, if it’s not the state’s attorney and it’s certainly not the judge, then who is to blame for this needless murder? Oh! That’s easy! It’s the local legislators who voted for one of the most poorly written and poorly conceived laws that ever made it on the books. We’re talking about:
- Cristina Castro
- Anna Moeller
- Karina Villa
- Linda Holmes
- Barbara Hernandez
- Fred Crespo
- Matt Hanson
- Maura Hirschauer
- Stephanie Kifowit
And they installed this garbage legislation over the more than reasonable objections of Illinois sheriff’s, police chiefs, state’s attorneys, and journalists who predicted this Elgin tragedy was inevitable.
The theory behind the SAFE-T Act is a sound one. Justice shouldn’t be granted to only those who can afford it. But the Black Caucus and Springfield progressives continue to harbor this insane notion that, if it weren’t for the jack-booted oppression of The Man, minority offenders would be moral upstanding citizens.
That’s a fiction we can’t afford to indulge in particularly when it comes to the courtroom. Some folks need to be off the street regardless of any other consideration and Contreras was certainly one of them.
I wonder how Cristina Castro and Anna Moeller are going to sleep tonight with the full knowledge that they’re responsible for a murder.
