CNN's Michael Smerconish evidently doesn't understand understand the issue of cash bail reform, because he used the fact that Trump was required to post $200,000 bail in Georgia to take a shot at liberals this Saturday.
SMERCONISH: Can Donald Trump campaign within the parameters of his release? Consider this. Trump was booked on Thursday in Fulton County Georgia, his fingerprints and mug shot both recorded.
His subsequent release was determined by a consent bond order, which was filed with the court three days prior. The order was agreed to by the judge, Scott McAfee, the District Attorney Fani Willis, and three Trump lawyers.
It enables Trump's release upon posting ten percent of the $200,000 bond... by the way kind of interesting that ending cash bail has become a rallying cry for progressives, but not in this case.
Advocates for cash bail reform don't care about what happens to Trump because the problem with cash bail is that it benefits people like Trump and harms poor people who are forced to rot in jail even if they're not a threat to the community because they can't afford to post bond. Here's more on that from the ACLU:
On any given day in 2020, roughly 630,000 people were locked up in local jails. The majority of them had not been convicted of a crime.
After an arrest — wrongful or not — a person’s ability to leave jail and return home to fight the charges typically depends on access to money. That's because, in virtually all jurisdictions, people are required to pay cash bail in order to secure their freedom. Originally, bail was designed to ensure people return to court to face charges against them. Now we know that simple solutions like court reminders often can achieve that purpose. And, the money bail system has morphed into one that perpetuates widespread wealth-based incarceration. The pretrial incarceration caused by unaffordable bail is the single greatest driver of convictions, and is responsible for the ballooning of our nation’s jail and prison populations.
Poorer Americans and people of color often can't afford to come up with money for bail, leaving them incarcerated in jail awaiting trial, sometimes for months or even years. Meanwhile, wealthy people accused of the same crime can buy their freedom and return home.
Across the country, money bail is set at levels that are far too high for many people or their families to pay. Defendants face an impossible choice: remain locked up in jail as the case moves through the system; pay a nonrefundable fee to a for-profit bail bonds company; or plead guilty and give up the right to defend themselves at trial. For poorer families, paying this fee can be a significant hardship. They won’t ever get the money back regardless of the outcome of the case – even if the arrest was a case of mistaken identity and no charges were ever filed.
Somehow Smeconish thinks that cash bail reform should be an issue of concern for liberals when it comes to someone like Trump. Sorry pal, but people like Trump walking free while others sit in jail are exactly why we need bail reform.
