bail - search results

Voters largely support policies allowing police to detain suspects charged with violent crimes, a new poll shows. That's in contrast to recent policies being enacted in Illinois.

Convention of States Action, along with Trafalgar Group, released the poll, which found that the vast majority of surveyed Americans do not support policies that keep law enforcement from detaining those accused of violent crimes.

The poll found that 95.6% of those surveyed “say they are less likely to vote for a candidate who supports policies which prevent police from detaining criminals charged with violent crimes, such as kidnapping and armed robbery.”

“Crime is the beneath-the-iceberg issue for voters in 2022, it’s absolutely clear in these numbers,” said Mark Meckler, president of the Convention of States. “Americans of all political backgrounds have a strong belief in protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty.”

Notably, 96.7% of Independent voters agree.

This comes as controversial city policies on police have gained nationwide attention. The newly passed SAFE-T Act in Illinois all but abolishes cash bail. Critics say this means that some charged with serious crimes like second-degree murder or kidnapping will be freed without a hearing.

Supporters of the law, set to take effect at the beginning of next year, point out it does not prohibit detention and that anyone deemed a flight risk can be detained. But critics of the law say proving a flight risk can be a difficult legal burden that won’t always happen, meaning violent criminals will quickly be back on the streets.

Pursuing suspected criminals has also become a controversial issue. In Chicago, police are restricted from pursuits for certain traffic violations.

A new law in Washington limits police officers from pursuing fleeing suspects. Suspected crimes have to meet a certain threshold, and word has spread quickly with suspects now fleeing police with no consequences.

The poll was carried out from Sept. 17-20 querying more than 1,000 likely midterm voters.

(The Center Square) – Eric Toney, the GOP candidate running for Wisconsin's Attorney General, said Milwaukee was one of America's most dangerous cities.

The Fond du Lac district attorney cited homicides within the city are on track to break the record of 193 set in 2021.

Yet, despite the reputation for violence, the city of Milwaukee police department has been arresting fewer and fewer people over the past nine years.

Milwaukee police made 13,272 arrests in 2021, which was 61% less than the 34,326 arrests made in 2012. The drop in arrests pre-dated the pandemic. Arrests went from 34,326 in 2012 to 17,007 in 2019, that's more than a 50% drop in the year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The decline in arrests comes at a time when police were going on more dispatched assignments than in the past.

Milwaukee police went on 279,818 dispatched assignments in 2021, the most since 2016 and the second-highest total of calls since 2012. City police were dispatched 13% more than in 2012, according to city data.

The Milwaukee police force had the fewest sworn officers in 2021 since at least 2006, when online records are available. The city had 1,839 sworn officers in 2021, which was 10% fewer than in 2012.

"The Milwaukee Police Department has not evaluated historical data related to arrests," said Sgt. Efrain Cornejo, spokesman for the department. "We remain committed to working with our community and system partners to build sustainable healthy neighborhoods, free of crime and maintained by positive relationships."

Milwaukee's police department falls in line with numerous other police forces in the country that have seen a large reduction in arrests.

Joshua Taylor, the 4th Congressional District Chair of the Milwaukee Democratic Party, didn't respond to an email seeking comment.

The Milwaukee Police Association didn't respond to an email seeking comment.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would increase taxes on nearly every American despite claims made by President Biden.

“When we pass the Inflation Reduction Act, not a single American in the middle class will pay higher taxes,” Biden tweeted.

According to analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, nearly all Americans would see increased taxes by 2023. The average tax rates would increase in nearly all income categories, according to its analysis, including lower income individuals such as those earning less than $10,000.

Federal taxes will increase by $1.9 billion on those earning between $50,000 and $75,000 and by $10.8 billion on those earning between $100,000 and $200,000 in 2023.

Overall average tax rates would increase from 20.3% to 20.6% in 2023 alone, according to the analysis.

According to the bill summary, “There are no new taxes on families making $400,000 or less and no new taxes on small businesses – we are closing tax loopholes and enforcing the tax code.”

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who’s spearheaded the bill, says it will pay down the national debt, and lower energy and health-care costs.

“Over the last year, leaders in Washington have ignored repeated warnings about the severe threat of inflation and the consequences of unprecedented domestic spending,” Manchin said. “Despite these concerns and my calls to give the country time to fully realize the impacts of such historic levels of spending and our inflation crisis, many Democrats have continued to push for trillions more in spending to meet a political deadline.

“Contrary to foolish talk otherwise, America cannot spend its way out of debt or out of inflation.”

The way to do this, he argues, is through “tax fairness,” including imposing a domestic corporate minimum tax of 15% on billion-dollar companies or larger. The bill also would spend more money on “technologies needed for all fuel types – from hydrogen, nuclear, renewables, fossil fuels and energy storage – to be produced and used in the cleanest way possible.” The technologies will help reduce domestic methane and carbon emissions and “decarbonize around the world as we displace dirtier products.”

The $400 billion bill won’t raise any taxes, he argues.

But The Wall Street Journal editorial board argues that’s exactly what it will do. The bill is “a tax increase on nearly every American,” they write. “Raise the corporate tax rate, and you’re cutting wages and salaries for workers.”

Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee argue the same. They warn it’s full of “hundreds of billions of dollars in wasteful inflationary spending [and] won’t reduce the deficit.”

“Rather than reduce inflation, it puts inflation on steroids,” they argue. It includes a “socialist drug price setting scheme [that] will likely cause drug prices to increase for patients for the next few years, all while killing future cures from ever coming to market.”

It also includes “expensive wasteful Green welfare,” they add, including Green New Deal tax credits of $257 billion and solar company loan guarantees of $250 billion that “will worsen our inflation problem, on top of government checks to subsidize luxury electric vehicles.”

Rather than tax the richest companies, it instead includes “handouts to the wealthy,” they argue, including “tens of billions of dollars in Obamacare subsidies [that] will flow to the well-off. It also increases taxes and fees on oil production and methane, which Republicans argue will result in higher gas prices, larger heating bills and higher consumer prices.

“When made permanent, Obamacare bailouts will cost $248 billion, four times higher than what Democrats’ bill admits. Meanwhile, Obamacare has already resulted in higher health care prices and 17 percent health insurance inflation,” they add.

The bill also includes a provision to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to begin auditing more than a million Americans, including lower income taxpayers.