About three weeks ago, in defending the pro-criminal SAFE-T Act, which, when it goes into effect on New Year's Day, will eliminate cash bail. Accused criminals will be locked up, under narrow circumstances, without bail, or be set free with their promise or returning. The little-or-no bail policies of Kim Foxx in Cook County has almost certainly led to a dramatic increase in violent crime.
In defending this flawed law, which 100 of 102 Illinois county prosecutors oppose, Pritzker let forth this fabulistic story, The SAFE-T Act, Pritzker said, is about "making sure that we're also addressing the problem of a single mother who shoplifted diapers for her baby, who is put in jail and kept there for six months because she doesn't have a couple of hundred dollars to pay for bail."
The threshold for charging a suspect for felony theft in Illinois is $300. But Foxx, the state's attorney in Cook County, raised it to $1,000.
I called Pritzker out on this tale. I mean, a mom has to steal a lot of diapers to be charged for felony theft.
So now Pritzker has added baby formula to the "Diapers Mom" tale. In an NPR interview recorded last week but released Monday, Pritzker said about the SAFE-T Act and bail, "Murderers can buy their way out. But a young mother who can't afford diapers and formula, and shoplifts those, goes into jail and can't afford a couple of hundred dollars in bail. She sits and languishes in jail while a murderer can buy their way out. That's not fair. And I think everybody understands that's not fair."
Do Illinoisans live in a society, where Jean Valjean-like, petty criminals are locked up for trying to feed a baby and get diapers by way of theft? No, we don't, and Pritzker, a lawyer, knows that. Yeah, it's possible "Diapers Mom" could grab enough baby formula to exceed that $300-felony threshold, but certainly not the $1,000 level needed up here in Cook County. But where is "Diapers Mom?" When was she locked up?
I don't believe she exists.
I'm waiting for the liberal media to challenge Pritzker on this story and perform their jobs as reporters.
Pritzker is committing the argumentum ad misericordiam logical fallacy with "Diapers Mom," that is, he is appealing to sympathy in an attempt to win the argument on the SAFE-T Act. Well, he's losing this argument because Pritzker and the Democrats haven't smothered the controversy over the SAFE-T Act.
Brian Mackey is the NPR journalist who interviewed Pritzker last week. Shame on him for not challenging the governor.
Do your job.
And if "Diapers Mom" exists--and please, don't send me stories from 1965--you'll hear about it here.
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