With crime spiking across Illinois, both parties in Springfield find themselves wrestling with a life-and-death issue that's begging for problem-solvers, not demagoguery. Yet politics is never far behind.
In Illinois, the issue provides an obvious target for Republicans, who have too little power at this point to bear much of the blame. Democrats don't have that luxury as they search instead for some good news to justify the merits of the sweeping criminal justice legislation they passed last year, even as they have added additional crime-fighting proposals for this year's condensed session in Springfield.
New House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch, now finishing his first year in the chair occupied by former Speaker Mike Madigan before he was voted out, has an ambitious agenda, although he remains cheerfully tight-lipped about the tricky specifics.
The issue throws raw meat to Republicans in the General Assembly who have pounced on persistent surges in carjackings and organized retail theft rings as a sign of weak-on-crime Democrats. All state legislators and Gov. J.B. Pritzker will be on the November ballot and defending last year's crime bill, which Republicans have ripped into with claims that it weakens law enforcement and emboldens criminals.
Adding to other recent horror stories about Chicago crime, the carjacking issue seemed to hit state lawmakers close to home after Democratic state Sen. Kimberly Lightford and her husband, Eric McKennie, were carjacked by masked individuals in the west suburban Broadview a few days before Christmas. The holdup led to a shootout between the suspects and Lightford's husband, who police said possesses a concealed carry license.
Add that to the numerous smash-and-grab burglaries at retail stores since the pandemic began, including blue-ribbon shops on Chicago's Gold Coast and Magnificent Mile, as well as in the suburbs.
Also on trial is the elimination of cash bail in 2023, a key provision of last year's anti-crime legislation. Aimed at addressing inequities in the justice system, the measure already has drawn fire from pro-police groups and House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs.
So far, data show a profound lack of empirical proof that similar reforms in Cook County's bail system have made crime in Chicago worse. But as a political issue, crime always evokes strong feelings quite detached from actual evidence.
To wit: "These guys aren't going to show up," said Durkin, a former Cook County prosecutor. "I know it for a fact."
Yet, since the new law has not gone into effect yet, Welch said he still supports cash bail elimination and cautioned against tying a measure that hasn't yet taken effect to the rise in violence.
Indeed, on bail reform the jury is still out, but amid much watchful waiting.
Welch and his fellow Democrats already have been signaling a reconsideration of their approach to crime fighting, particularly in light of these brazen episodes of carjacking, which understandably terrify many citizens, and retail thefts, which are having a visible impact on tourism and economic development in downtown Chicago. That's wise. Lax bail reform and electronic monitoring have had some scandalous and tragic consequences, as previously discussed on this page, a situation made yet worse by pressures to reduce the prison population during the global pandemic.
State Sen. Sara Feigenholtz, a Chicago Democrat who voted in favor of the criminal justice reform package, more recently suggested in a Zoom-based public meeting in Chicago's Lakeview community, that the law might need another look.
"I don't think that anybody bargained for repeat offenders and people who were in possession of a gun and accused of a violent crime to be released on an I-bond," she said at the meeting (as previously reported by the crime-reporting website CWB Chicago). She's right. An I-bond, short for individual bond, allows a defendant to be released merely by signing a statement saying they will come to court, without having to post cash bail. This clearly dangerous privilege should be limited scrupulously to nonviolent offenders. If we did not all know that before, we sure do now.
Now that the new legislation has moved from the dream stage into reality, responsible minds in both parties need to get their heads together for the sake of the public that elected them. They have to be willing to look closely again at the impact and efficacy of what they have done.
The current crime plague has touched the lives and shaken the confidence of Illinoisans across the state, contributing to a profound and depressing change in how safe people feel in their neighborhoods and thus to an exodus of Illinoisans of all stripes.
The proper measure of success for this crime-fighting legislation is not to be found in who's the most "left" or "right," but in what we can see has worked in recent months and its prospects for our shared future.