“No cash bail” policies are leading to rising crime rates in cities across America, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) president.. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez .On CBS’s “Face the Nation” political talk show on Sunday, Miami Republican Mayor and USCM President Francis Suarez said the “no cash bail” policy has created cities of “lawlessness.” It is affecting the economy and an increase in minor crimes such as petty theft, as the catch and release leads to no penalty on the alleged criminal..“What I’m focusing on is that the no cash bail is creating lawlessness in a lot of our cities,” said Suarez. .“What’s happening is, for example, people get out right away. They’re not even, you know, they don’t even have to post bail. So they’re able to get out right away. And so we’re seeing someone go into like a CVS, for example, and take thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, which is causing a CVSs to close, which hurts the, you know, the rest of the city, but that’s not particularly related to, to the gun violence issue. It’s related more to petty crime, which is creating lawlessness in some of our cities.”.Suarez said the “defund police” movement led to an increase in crime..“We are funding our [Miami] police. A lot of cities got into the defunding police movement. And we’re seeing [police funding] as a bipartisan issue,” said Suarez..In Houston, many bar and restaurant owners are sleeping in their establishments because of the city’s bail policies that have robbers coming multiple times to the same place to rob it..For example, Two-Headed Dog Bar (THDB) was robbed 15 times in 2022..“I have been burglarized 15 times in the last year,” said THDB owner Lindsey Rae at a Houston city council meeting. .“We’re seeing, if they are getting caught, they’re getting re-released because of the cash bond issues we’re having. They can come back and rob us again.”.In Houston in 2011, only 3.5% of charges were released with a felony bond and only 3.5% of criminals out on bail had one or more existing felony bonds. In 2021, that rose to 18.8% released with a felony bond and 19% having had at least one felony bond, which is almost six times more out on the street. One offender had 13 separate felony bonds..READ MORE Controversial law eliminating cash bail in Illinois paused
