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So the topic of catch and release police policy came up this week thanks to one guy in Niagara Falls.
The law-and-order crowd hits back “this is the problem with bail reform. Blame that socialist Governor Hochul!”
Olando Beckford of Burtonsville, Md. was arrested 4 times in 3 days, for petty stuff including three times at One Niagara and once at Family Dollar.
As much as angry, mostly white partisan alpha males like me cry “lock ‘em up” I get why they don’t.
Let’s say I lose my crap, cause a scene at Wagon Wheel late on a Friday night and think I can outrun the Fall cops because I have a Subaru Forester and I am a good driver.
Of course, we’ve been having hard times and my car insurance got screwed up and my license is suspended.
I crash into a business on Military Road and behave like a drunken jerk. The cops taze me, and charge me with 15 different crimes and send me for a night at the jail and a breakfast from Frankies.
They hold me for the judge who sets bail at $10,000. I pay a $1,000 bond and am free to go because that's no big deal for us.
Now make me a Sean the crackhead. I am homeless and live in a semi-trailer on the river side of Main Street. I have been a pain in the ass for a really long time. Life has never been kind to me.
I cause trouble multiple times at DiCamillo’s on Linwood, hassling customers, grabbing purses out of unlocked cars and being the sort of nuisance honest citizens hate.
Alpha male me says “lock ‘em up” and be sure to bang him in the ribs when he's in the elevator at the police station. The old school judge sets bail at $10,000. Sean doesn’t have $1,000, or a bank account or place to live. The judge lets him sit in county jail.
There is a double standard in play. That’s what bail reform addresses.
Some sort of legislation is likely an answer. The Judge should likely have the option to keep me or Sean locked up if A) I was really, really a jerk or B) The fine employees at DiCamillo’s deserve better than to be hassled by Sean on a daily basis and keeping him and finding him a path to recovery would help him and make our community safer.
