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The incident happened last Monday evening on the Chicago Transit
Authority’s Blue Line. The suspect in the case had 49 previous
arrests. He was charged with committing a terrorist attack
against a mass transportation system. The victim was
hospitalized with critical injuries.
Pritzker spoke at an unrelated event in Skokie Friday and was
asked if it was time to amend the SAFE-T Act and the provision
which ended cash bail in Illinois.
“The SAFE-T Act is designed to give judges the ability to keep
people in jail who they think are potentially dangerous for the
community,” Pritzker said.
The governor defended signing the legislation to end cash bail.
“Bail is sort of an automatic out for people who just happen to
have enough money and an automatic incarceration for somebody
who happens not to have enough money,” Pritzker said.
A reporter told Pritzker that prosecutors reported problems with
the law, saying it prevents dangerous people from being held.
“Sometimes bills get passed and everybody that votes for it
knows that there needs to be a trailer bill or a tweak that
needs to be made afterward, so I think everybody is open to
listening to what changes might need to be made,” Pritzker said.
When asked if these types of incidents hurt the argument that
crime is down in Chicago, Pritzker said President Donald Trump
attacks the city and says it is dangerous.
“When he does that, any time there is a crime and especially one
this horrific, it tends to get amplified because of his words,”
Pritzker said.
The president called out cashless bail policies that started in
Illinois when he delivered remarks to the White House Religious
Liberty Commission in September.
“Cashless bail started a wave in our country where a killer
kills somebody and is out on the street by the afternoon, in
many cases going out and killing again,” Trump said.
Illinois Republicans have made repeated calls for the SAFE-T Act
to be amended or repealed.
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