Ed Morrissey recently highlighted the bizarre story of how alleged attempted political assassin Quintez Brown was bailed out of jail by a “charity bail fund” set up by Black Lives Matter in Kentucky. That generosity was arranged by the Louisville Community Bail Fund, which has raised millions of dollars from BLM supporters for just such purposes. The outrage expressed around the country at this turn of events did nothing to affect the outcome and the hands of the judge who allowed bail to be set are tied. But now some state Republican officials are working to change the rules so these types of releases don’t happen in the future. (Free Beacon)
In Kentucky, a Black Lives Matter bail fund has paid to release violent rapists, murderers, and even a would-be political assassin. Now, Republicans in the state are moving to rein in the practice.
Kentucky legislators Jason Nemes and John Blanton are behind the effort. The Republicans are pushing two bills that would forbid bail funds from paying to release certain arrestees and allow judges to deny bail for particularly heinous criminals. The move comes just days after a Louisville bail fund paid $100,000 to free Quintez Brown, a prominent liberal activist who is charged with attempting to murder Jewish Democratic mayoral hopeful Craig Greenberg in his campaign office.
The problem is that state law in Kentucky forbids judges from remanding suspects to jail without bail except in cases of capital murder. Judges do have the option of setting very high bail for dangerous criminals accused of violent crimes, and that typically serves as a sufficient barrier to keep them behind bars. But as the Free Beacon article explains, the Louisville Community Bail Fund is turning the system on its head. The original complaint that these types of bail funds supposedly sought to address dealt with cases where people were being held behind bars for even very minor crimes simply because they couldn’t raise the money to bail themselves out.
But that’s not what the LCBF is doing. They are bailing out rapists and attempted murderers. In 2020 the fund paid $25K to bail out accused rapist Austen Bush. Bush was a registered sex offender who was behind bars on child pornography charges. As soon as he was released he contacted his victim and threatened to kill her.
The bills currently being introduced by state Republican lawmakers wouldn’t abolish bail funds like the LCBF entirely, but they would impose new limits and amend the existing process. Bail funds would only be allowed to pay the bail for people accused of “minor offenses whose bail is low.” And if a suspect went on to commit another crime while out on bail, the bail money would be seized and given to the victim, not returned to the fund.
A separate bill introduces a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would allow judges to deny bail to suspects accused of highly serious, violent crimes. Between the two proposals, situations such as those involving Quintez Brown and Austen Bush shouldn’t crop up in the future.
The GOP has a veto-proof majority in the Kentucky legislature, so both of these bills should sail through without a problem. The question is, will any Democrats in the legislature step across the aisle to support these measures, or will they signal that they are fine with someone who attempted to murder a Jewish, Democratic mayoral candidate being back out on the streets in 48 hours?
