Sweeping criminal justice reforms in Illionois have had “overwhelmingly negative” effects, a small town sheriff in the southern part of the state said a year after the law was implemented.
“These kinds of reforms and this kind of constant police-bashing rhetoric that we hear out of these – I’ll just say it – out of these Marxist folks, it’s having the intended result that they truly want,” Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Bullard told Fox News. “They’re wanting to damage the policing profession and they’re having some success at it.”
“Policing leaders need to step up and stand against it,” he added. “Very loud, very vocal, very strongly.”
The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2023, overhauled Illinois’ justice system with provisions that granted more freedoms to defendants and reduced certain felonies to misdemeanors. It also lowered the severity of some misdemeanors, like trespassing, and eliminated cash bail across the…