In fact, the more dangerous a criminal is (connected to organized crime, extreme wealth, etc), the more likely they are to be able to afford bail.
🙂🙃

The people least likely to afford bail, are poor people, with no connections to criminal organizations, but high probability of being falsely arrested and charged. If you guessed "poor Black people," give yourself 10 points!

1. The US locks up more people than any other nation.

2. Most of these people are innocent. I didn't say "not guilty." I said "innocent." As in, under normal circumstances, there would not even be enough evidence to even charge these people with a crime. The only reason they're charged, is because the DA knows that they can't afford bail, and people that can't afford bail will confess to crimes that they didn't do. Happens every day.

3. People caught in this trap are disproportionately Black

Imagine you are a Black man with a wife and 2 kids living in the Bronx. You and your wife both earn minimum wage. You've never been arrested, never committed a crime, don't do drugs, never been in a gang.

One day, you're arrested and falsely accused of a crime. You're sent to Rikers. There is definitive proof that you were somewhere else at the time of the crime. DA says they're going to charge you. You can't afford bail, or an attorney.

You'll be in jail for up to *2 years* prior to trial.

Rikers is a dangerous place. I don't care how much UFC you think you watch, or how tough you think you are. You are not ready.

DA says if you plead guilty, they will let you out today with 5 years probation. If you maintain your innocence, they will charge you with 5 years.

Even if you beat the case, you will be in jail for 2 years. You will lose your minimum wage job. Your wife may lose custody of the kids, if she fails to "maintain a home." Which puts your kids in child protective services.

During that 2 years, your credit score will become ruined. Your wife will have to "put money on your books" meaning pay exorbitant fees to send you money, so that you can buy snacks. She may even have to pay exorbitant fees just to send you emails.

And she'll have to find a way to pay for that on her single minimum wage salary.

Or... plead guilty to something you didn't do, and go home today.

Real people make this choice every day.

On the other hand, in a system where bail is illegal, you will be charged, and told that your court date is two years from now, and that you must appear on that court date, and that if you don't appear you will be fined or arrested... but that you can go home today.

You will leave jail, go to collect the evidence of your innocence, and give it to your public defender. Your public defender will tell the DA "You will lose in 2 years. Give up now." The DA will say "True.🫤" And *drop the case*.🤯

Important point:
Bail reform doesn't "Release dangerous criminals onto the streets."

Bail is supposedly designed to make sure people show up to court on that date in the future.

There is a completely different dimension on "risk to the public." Whether there is bail or not, a judge can decide whether or not a defendant should be in pre-trial detention or not.

If there's strong evidence of community danger, witness tampering, etc, judges can require pretrial detention.

A lot of white Americans don't value bail reform, because they can't conceive of themselves being charged with a crime they didn't do, when there is literally zero evidence. That seems like a vanishingly rare occurrence.

A lot of Black Americans do support bail reform, because they know that being falsely accused of a crime is a very real possibility for them. Happens a lot.

Both groups of people are correct in their risk assessment. 🙂🙃

There's a whole genre of videos that are "White person loses iPhone, accuses closest Black person of stealing it, finds it moments later in their purse or pocket, and either apologizes or doubles down on the racism."

These don't all have happy or funny endings. Many of these stories in NYC, wind up at Rikers.

If the falsely accused Black person takes off running, the lack of iPhone on them is explained as "They threw it while running!"

Staying, remaining calm, and filming, is a safer option.