The Lee Zeldin Attack And The Perils Of Bail Reform In America’s Big Cities

How bipartisan strides made in the criminal justice movement are being hijacked by radical bail and police reform policies in the states and cities with skyrocketing violent crime rates, and how moderate and conservative politicians can help “right the ship” during this year’s midterm election cycle.

In the last week, the suspects caught on video committing a brazen assault on a police officer and, in a separate incident, an assassination attempt on Republican New York gubernatorial nominee, Rep. Lee Zeldin – have both been released without bail less than 24 hours after being charged with their violent attacks on public officials. This is thanks to New York State’s radical bail reform law, passed in 2019, which ended cash bail in the Empire State, sharply limiting pretrial detention. As a result, suspects in the midst of a cycle of criminality are returned to the streets – and crime across New York and other cities nationwide that have adopted similar progressive policies has skyrocketed. 

This has prompted an outraged response from many, to include police union president Pat Lynch and former New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton, who was once credited for the largest drop in a municipal crime rate in American history, to post on his LinkedIn profile with a message urging politicians to repeal these controversial criminal justice-reform related laws. 

In New York, Zeldin’s attacks on bail reform have intensified following his Thursday night attack by fellow Army veteran David Jakubonis, who allegedly rushed Zeldin while wielding an edged weapon at a campaign event near crime-plagued Rochester. Another recent case involving the arrest of drug traffickers who were released after being charged with over $1 million worth of illegal methamphetamines. “As a former prosecutor, I will tell you that when someone comes at someone else’s neck … that alone is meeting the elements of some very severe charges that are on the books,” Zeldin said Monday at a campaign stop in New York City.

Many progressive politicians have championed the elimination of the cash bail system in many states under the banner of “criminal justice reform”. However, with a sharp rise in violent crime over the last two years, these reforms have become a major talking point for voters fearing violent crime in their communities. Amid a contentious midterm elections season and rising crime rates in many American cities, the Democratic quest for bail reform may be undermining strides made in the overall criminal justice reform movement.

While both sides of the aisle support criminal justice reform, their approaches are drastically different. On the left, the progressive approach to criminal justice reform is one that favors relaxing arrests, prosecutions, and charging for a myriad of crimes. The approach favored by conservatives, as exemplified in the bipartisan First Step Act during the Trump administration, examines draconian “mandatory minimum” sentences that have contributed to America’s high incarceration rate, while examining clemency and civil rights restoration initiatives for those who have already payed their debt to society.

In 2021, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was passed, in which the House passed federal police reform legislation in response to public outcry over Floyd’s murder. One week prior to the passage of the Floyd act, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed the Pre-Trial Fairness Act, which eliminated cash bail based on the notion that bail constitutes a “poverty tax” overly impacting people of color. 

Consequently, Illinois joined a league of other progressive jurisdictions that have made changes to their bail systems in recent years, such as New York’s aforementioned 2019 law that completely eliminated bail for most misdemeanors and some felonies, limiting a judge’s discretion to decide whether to detain a person accused of a crime primarily based on whether they are likely to return to court when released.

Progressive district attorneys in cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Philadelphia have also curbed the use of money bail. Recently, Detroit’s district court, the largest in Michigan, agreed to change its bail practices in settling a lawsuit filed by two advocacy groups. These legal changes or prosecutor-driven directives have established legal barriers to the setting of cash bail and/or pre-trial confinement for criminal defendants, regardless of the fact that many have a myriad of prior charges and/or even pending trials at the time of their latest arrest.  

Supporters say ending cash bail makes the criminal justice system fairer for poor people, keeping them  out of jail simply because they can’t afford to make bail. Bail reform proponents cite an analysis from the Prison Policy Initiative that studied research from 13 jurisdictions where pretrial amendments had taken place, to include New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and San Francisco, claiming to have found no evidence that crime increased as a result. This is directly refuted by record-high violent crime rates reported in the time frame directly correlating with the passage of these laws.

In each of these cases, politicians have ignored the urging of criminal justice leaders and victims who contend