Kendall County Times

Kendall County Republican Party Chairman James Marter stews the Criminal Justice Reform Bill sets the stage for just more of the same.

“It’s just more of the defund the police rhetoric that has been so incendiary,” Marter told the Kendall County Times. “After a year of riots and other disasters you would think most would agree this might be the wrong time to be introducing something like this.”

Marter joins a growing number of other republican lawmakers in voicing concerns about the timing and the approach to introducing the bill being all wrong. On the surface, House Bill 163 seeks to enact such changes as outlawing cash bails and chokeholds and prohibiting pre-trial detention.

Supported by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, the bill would also outlaw cash bails and expand police reform on use of force, crisis training and prohibiting chokeholds. The proposed reforms have been a work in progress ever since the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police last summer. Finally, it also includes mandating the use of body cameras across the state by 2025 and the use of special prosecutors in police-involved killings.

“The bottom-line is we need to be defending and not defunding the police,” Marter added. “This proposal is coming from left field from a bunch of leftists. The States’ Attorney in Kendall County is already contacting members of the legislature in hopes of getting this defeated. It strips away all the protections of officers and cripples their abilities.”

Marter is joined in blasting the proposed legislation by an assortment of the state’s top law enforcement officials, many of whom have signed off on a joint statement insisting that the bill “would destroy law enforcement’s ability to keep communities safe.”

In what they see as being in the best interest of all, they are urging lawmakers to “avoid making a sudden, rash decision and instead work carefully with all stakeholders to truly examine what needs to be done regarding law enforcement in Illinois.”