Letter: What is in the SAFE-T Act

Well, I did it. I killed the trees, printed the SAFE-T Act (all 764 pages), and here’s what I found.

Cash bonds are abolished, but judges can deny pretrial release in any situation where “the state can demonstrate a real and present threat to the physical safety of any person or persons.” So it goes; there is a long list of conditions under which pretrial release can or must be denied. The emphasis is on protecting the public. Judges must consider the nature and seriousness of the threat that would be posed by releasing the arrestee, and the normal rules of evidence are suspended.

The right-wing claim that violent criminals will walk is hogwash.

There’s a lot of good stuff in the law, but most importantly: police can’t use deadly force unless against someone who is likely to “cause great bodily harm to another person.” Officers can still shoot people as needed to protect us. But “peace officers shall use deadly force only when reasonably necessary in defense of human life.” Chokeholds like the one that killed George Floyd are banned. Officers must render aid to someone they have shot and intervene to stop unauthorized deadly force.

The SAFE-T Act protects us by preventing violent criminals from buying their way out of lockup prior to trial and ends the injustice of poor people charged with petty offenses sitting in jail for months or years for lack of a few hundred dollars. It saves precious tax dollars.

Ed Gogol

Crystal Lake