Last night, Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, an attorney and former federal judicial law clerk, joined “Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler” on One America News Network to discuss New York state’s extraordinarily controversial new “bail reform” legislation. The law, which the New York Post editorial board decries today as a flat-out “bad law,” eliminates the possibility of judge-imposed cash bail for the overwhelming majority of crimes committed in the Empire State.
Here is how the Post describes some of the problems with the law:
One huge problem: The new law prevents judges from ordering most criminal suspects jailed, or even requiring them to post bail, no matter how clear a threat to public safety they pose. Judges retain discretion only if the charges include a handful of very violent crimes and they deem the suspect a clear flight risk.
This guarantees a revolving door for serious perps: Caught for a minor holdup, you’ll be charged and released — and can do it again, get caught again and be released again, time after time after time.
The Daily Wire has also previously reported on the law’s noxiousness. The Daily Wire’s Amanda Prestigiacomo recently reported on a serial anti-Semitic assaulter who astoundingly committed three separate crimes in a span of five days due to the law’s inordinate leniency. As also reported by Prestigiacomo, all five borough district attorneys in New York City have gone on the record stating that the law goes too far in favoring defendants.
Hammer has consistently been very critical of this type of pro-criminal, “jailbreak”-style legislation. Last weekend, Giancarlo Sopo of TheBlaze quoted him in the context of a similar partisan Democratic initiative in Virginia:
Reached by telephone, constitutional law attorney and Daily Wire editor-at-large Josh Hammer told TheBlaze that [the proposed Virginia] bill is part of a pattern among Democrats and like-minded “weak-on-crime” Republicans.
“Across the country, we see so many leftist Democrats — joined by no small share of libertarian-leaning Republicans — subscribing to the same weak-on-crime agenda,” Hammer, who has been critical of similar so-called “criminal justice reform” efforts, said.
“New York’s harrowing recent ‘bail reform’ proposal is a shining example, and this Democratic proposal in Virginia fits in neatly, as well. Americans have historically cherished law and order, and it is devastating to see these kind of jailbreak, pro-criminal policies take hold as we descend further into mass lawlessness,” he added.
Wheeler began the segment by asking Hammer about the New York lawmakers’ purported aim — to reduce inequality and promote justice — and why the law’s authors do not seem to care about equality and justice for the actual victims of crime. Hammer launched into a rant about how the Left is able to effectively wield seemingly anodyne language, such as “bail reform,” as a cudgel to advance their lawless agenda:
The problem with the Left is the Left speaks about justice and compassion and all these fancy words. They never focus on the people who actually suffer … from their policies. So in the case of border security and amnesty, there is no one who suffers worse from an open border and the human trafficking by drug cartels than the aliens themselves who are trafficked. In the case of “criminal justice reform,” “bail reform,” no one suffers more than victims of crime.
Where is anyone speaking for the victims of crime? But you know what the Left also does, Liz? The Left is amazing at getting the right version of language for their policies. “Bail reform,” it sounds so innocuous, right? What they’re doing is they’re throwing out a system of bail that has existed since at least 13th century England! That is how far back bail goes — cash bail, monetary bail. This is literally a centuries-old phenomenon that they are just throwing out.
WATCH: