Law enforcement slam the signing of a bill by Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, which will make them the first state to end cash bail.
One of the changes in the new bill will be strictly defining the use-of-force rules which can make it even more dangerous for officers in close encounters that become violent.
But major organizations representing police and prosecutors say they weren’t consulted on critical pieces. Opponents, including the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association, have criticized the bill.
The Illinois Law Enforcement Coalition said it is ‘a blatant move to punish an entire, honorable profession that will end up hurting law-abiding citizens the most’. They argue that it will hamstring police and discourage talented people from joining law enforcement.
Among other things, they contend the use-of-force rules are too restrictive as to endanger officers; that dangerous people may be set free while awaiting trial; and that requiring body cameras for all departments by 2025 will be too costly.
‘The governor is willfully undermining public safety – endangering citizens, emboldening criminals, and making Illinois less safe for families,’ Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy said.
“This 700-plus page proposal was rammed through in the middle of the night with just hours left in a lame-duck session without the transparency and discourse expected in a democratic process,” GOP Sen. John Curran stated.
One of the supporters of the bill is Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx who dropped felony charges against Jussie Smollett, the Empire actor accused of staging a racist, homophobic attack on himself in January 2019.
Click here for the full story.
A Bill Pushing Left Leaning Politics Into the Classroom in Illinois Has Officially Passed
In an article we previously wrote concerning the Illinois State Board of Education passing a bill called “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards has officially been upheld by the Illinois Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR).
Some of the new standards include teachers assessing “how their biases affect how they access tools to mitigate their own behavior (racism, sexism, homophobia, unearned privilege, Eurocentrism, etc.)”
Bettina L. Love is a prominent advocate of Critical Race Theory in education and she believes “White Teachers Need Anti-Racist Therapy.”
If teachers do not do so voluntarily the new standards would allow schools to force teachers into therapy for their whiteness , along with punishing them with a loss of license and certification if complaints are made about them not adopting “progressive” ideologies. Teaching about “systemic racism” will be required as well.
Some Republican lawmakers voiced their opposition to the standards earlier this month, saying they add unnecessary politics to the classroom.
Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, said she asked ISBE to include more diverse perspectives on their task forces to avoid standards like this from being so controversial in the future, and said the board made some of the changes Republicans asked for.
Rezin said her office got an unusually high number of calls and emails about these standards.
These new teaching standards will take effect in October 2025.
Some lawmakers were not happy with the decision including Republican Candidate for Governor and Former Senator Paul Schimpf:
“I am extremely disappointed that JCAR approved the State Board of Education’s Culturally Responsive Teacher Standards. These standards politicize the teacher certification process and undermine the authority of local school boards, superintendents, and parents to control their children’s’ education. This is yet another example of top-down, administrative overreach by the Pritzker Administration and illustrates a clear example of why Illinois needs a new governor.”
Affluent Chicagoans Fleeing Due to Leadership Inability to Calm BLM Violence
Many people, including President Trump himself, noted during their Republican National Convention speeches that Democratic-run cities are experiencing violence and looting, as the leaders whose policies are to blame are safely hidden in privileged areas. However, areas like Chicago have become so bad, affluent neighborhoods are no longer safe and citizens are getting out of dodge.
“Incidents of widespread looting and soaring homicide figures in Chicago have made national news during an already tumultuous year,” writes the Chicago Tribune. “As a result, some say residents in affluent neighborhoods downtown, and on the North Side, no longer feel safe in the city’s epicenter and are looking to move away.”
Liberal leadership has been unsuccessful at subduing violence from the Black Lives Matter’s highjacked movement. With no end of destruction in sight and spontaneous eruptions of violence, while residents say “they understand why protesters and rioters have poured onto the streets of downtown, and some acknowledge that crime is worse in other parts of Chicago” they still want out reports the Chicago Tribune.
Some people “agree with protesters that something systemic needs to be changed” but they “don’t want to wait it out here in the city, fearful of stepping outside at night and hoping for things to maybe get better.” A 30-year-old nurse who lives in the River North area said, “not to make it all about us; the whole world is suffering…but I do think that I’ve never had to think about my own safety in this way before.”
Hopefully, this will be a lesson to Chicagoans and similar cities, that they need to vote out their Democratic leadership who refuse to stand up to the violent protesters and also refuse to accept help and assistance offered directly from President Trump. 60-year-old Neil Spun has lived in Chicago for over half his life and is deeply conflicted about moving. A state worker, Spun said “there have been rights before, and looting. It just seems to me now that the city isn’t doing anything about it. I don’t see this getting any better, and so I’d like to leave.” Residents would be far better off voting in new leadership instead of succumbing to liberal policies that change their communities beyond recognition.
