New York Times Spins Waukesha Massacre, Fears Could Hurt Bail Reform Nationwide

Career criminal Darrell Brooks sped through the barricades of a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing six and injuring dozens, and the New York Times on Saturday engaged in damage control for the left-wing “bail reform” movement nationwide.

“Waukesha Suspect’s Previous Release Agitates Efforts to Overhaul Bail,” by Glenn Thrush and Shaila Dewan, offered up plenty of excuses for Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and the staggeringly low bail set for Brooks after he ran over his girlfriend with an SUV, enabling him to be out of jail in the first place, while spinning hard to avoid tarring the “overhaul bail” movement nationwide.

Brooks’ pro-Black Lives Matter posts and approval of violence on social media were completely ignored:

The bail decision has brought criticism raining down on Milwaukee County’s district attorney, John T. Chisholm, a Democrat who has tried to reduce high rates of incarceration and racial disparities in the justice system. Longtime critics, led by Wisconsin’s previous governor, Scott Walker, blamed Mr. Brooks’s release on Mr. Chisholm’s “radical” liberal ideology.

According to court records and interviews with defense attorneys, judges and local officials, it appears that this controversial release was not made as a result of a policy.

A court officer set the bond. Several people familiar with Milwaukee’s criminal courts said the amount was uncharacteristically low given the defendant’s background and charges, and it prompted an internal investigation within the district attorney’s office.

Fears that this backlash would lead to the end of efforts in the nation to reduce the number of imprisoned defendants from poor families who cannot afford bail and are awaiting their trial, prompted fears.

The reporters and their sources warned readers not to use the Wisconsin tragedy to discredit the bail reform movement:

“This was not the product of criminal justice reform or bail reform efforts, which have rightfully questioned how we use pretrial and post-conviction incarceration,” said Craig Mastantuono, a Milwaukee criminal defense lawyer who has worked on such efforts for 15 years.

Occasional criticism of the bail decision was made, but other excuses were offered, with no indication that this case should cause concern for leftist activists.

“With a tragedy like this, a true tragedy, we do not have any way of predicting when this is likely to happen or not likely to happen,” said Meghan Guevara, an executive partner at the Pretrial Justice Institute. “If the judges were not having to churn through so many cases, they may have time to focus on a case like this,” she added.

Reporters hid an amazing admission made by Chisholm when he said that his complicity would result in murder.

Interview with Mr. Chisholm, 2007, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He acknowledged that the system was not able to predict all possible violence. “Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into a treatment program, who’s going to go out and kill somebody?” he said. “You bet.” He was discussing alternatives to incarceration, not release on bail pending trial. Studies have shown that such programs can reduce overall recidivism.

The report ended with the paper’s priorities clear: Not the killings themselves, but how the killings threatened to block efforts to make the criminal justice system “more equitable” and less racist by eliminating bail:

“This could be a huge blow to our work in making the system more equitable,” said David Bowen, a Wisconsin state representative whose district includes several predominantly Black neighborhoods in Milwaukee. “The narrative gaining traction in white suburban communities now is all about being tough on crime.”