The Professional Bondsmen of Texas- Blog

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot attributed her election loss to racism and sexism in comments to reporters Tuesday night, glossing over the impact of violent crime, which surged in the windy city during her tenure. “I’m a black woman in America. Of course,” she replied when asked by a reporter if she had been treated unfairly, according to the New York Post. Lightfoot neglected to mention that Johnson is also black. Lightfoot is the first black woman and the first openly gay person to lead the nation’s third-largest city. She has been heavily criticized for the rampant crime in Chicago and the demonization of the police. While Lightfoot initially supported cutting the city’s police budget, she has since pivoted. Violent crime in the city increased by 40 percent since she was elected in 2019 on a promise to bring down crime rates, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. To see more CLICK HERE . Commentary-  Question:  When we elect someone based upon identity politics, do the voters ever ...

  Over the past two years, Democrats who embraced a liberal criminal justice agenda at the city level have found themselves increasingly unwelcome among voters who once applauded their views. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot became the latest liberal leader to discover Democratic voters have soured on the Left’s leniency on crime when she became the first mayor of her city in 40 years to lose reelection this week. In Atlanta, for example, former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms surprised political observers when she decided in 2021 not to run for reelection, announcing that it was “time to pass the baton on to someone else."  A crime wave in Atlanta sapped her political goodwill, however, and the race among the Democrats vying to replace her centered on which candidate was prepared to crack down more aggressively on crime.   In Seattle, former Mayor Jenny Durkan filed paperwork to run for reelection in early 2020.  But the violence of that summer in Seattle — and her failure t...

  The most memorable moment of Tuesday’s fiery debate between New York governor Kathy Hochul and her Republican challenger, Lee Zeldin, centred on crime. After Zeldin hammered Hochul on bail-reform laws that put criminals back on the streets, one of the main themes of his campaign, Hochul seemed to admit more than she might have wished. ‘I don’t know why that’s so important to you’, she responded. With Democrats like Hochul wondering aloud why anyone cares about repeat offenders roaming the streets, perhaps it is no surprise that the Republicans are seen by voters as the party that cares more about crime and has a better chance of tackling it. High-profile Democrats and progressives have repeatedly dismissed voters’ concerns about crime, casting the fears of regular Americans as a reflection of conservative fear-mongering. You have to wonder, is it really wise to gaslight voters in this way? Is it wise to tell them they are wrong to care about what they are telling you they care ab...

"It's flat out ridiculous that we're allowing this to happen in Harris County, and we're not going to hold anyone accountable anymore," said Doug Griffith, President of the Houston Police Officers Union. Miranda O'Donnel, a woman with a laundry list of misdemeanor charges and mug shots, is the reason a federal judge mandated no cash bonds for Harris County residents charged with misdemeanors. District Attorney Kim Ogg and the Houston Police Union compiled data showing a lot of defendants weren't even showing up for court. The Professional Bondsmen of Texas took an even deeper dive into court records covering the period from January 1, 2021, through August 2022 "The average failure to appear rate in misdemeanor courts, all 16 of them, is over 80%," said Ken W. Good, member of the Professional Bondsmen of Texas. Good says many misdemeanor courts take no action against those who fail to appear. He says the data shows 71% of all misdemeanor cases are...

  Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor in New York, vowed on Sunday to fire liberal Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on his first day in office and reiterated criticism of his opponent, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, for standing by the state’s controversial bail reform law.  "Democrats – just like Republicans and Independents – are fed up with not feeling safe on our streets," Zeldin said during an appearance on Fox News’ "Sunday Morning Futures."  "My first act on my first day in office is telling the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that he’s going to be fired," he continued. "Here in New York, we’ve seen cashless bail as a failure. It’s caused crime to increase. It needs to be repealed. Judges need discretion to weigh dangerousness. It is pro-criminal laws and DA’s refusing to their jobs, judges refusing to do theirs in some other cases and people less safe as a result."  Overall crime in New York is up by nearl...

Have you ever heard of the expression that you cannot believe your "lying eyes?"  Its a way of saying don't believe what you see, believe what you are being told.  No where is this more evident than in Harris County regarding misdemeanor bail reform.  Reformers tell us over and over that the reforms are working and that we should not believe anyone else who says otherwise (even the Democrat District Attorney). In this episode of The Bail Post, we evaluate whether the misdemeanor reforms are working looking at the failure to appear rates for each of the misdemeanor courts for the last two years.  The numbers are jaw dropping.  Additionally, we are releasing a website where any one  in the public can go and see the numbers for themselves.  There is no way to sugar coat this.  The numbers are not just bad; they are eye openingly bad.  They are so bad that our elected officials have to know and have to be intentionally hiding them.   This pr...

The next Guest on "The Bail Post" is James Lindblad.  He has been a bondsman in Hawaii for over 35 years.  He has witnessed many changes to the criminal justice system over the years.  Join us as we discuss HB 1567, its passage and the publics' response which caused the Governor of Hawaii to veto the bill. Mr. Lindblad suggests that the real fight was over the need for a new jail.  HB 1567 was the response of progressives so that a new jail would not be needed.  But law enforcement, business owners and the mayors of the four major islands banded together with social media to spread the message that releasing everyone was not working and that a change was needed.  The public responded.   Is the "woke" luau over in Hawaii?   James Lindblad is hopeful that more positive change is coming.   Also available on: Apple Podcasts-            CLICK HERE Spotify-            ...

  Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz placed blame on woke elected officials in Democrat-run cities for the abrupt closure of 16 stores located primarily on the West Coast. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal was the first to report that six locations each will shut down in Seattle and Los Angeles, in addition to two in Portland, Ore., one in Philadelphia, and one in Washington, D.C., by August. The company cited repeated safety incidents behind its decision. Leaked footage of Schultz at an internal meeting, published by The Post Millennial’s Ari Hoffman on Thursday, revealed the coffee-chain executive blaming elected officials for an environment in which it’s too hostile to operate. “In my view at the local, state, and federal level, these governments across the country and leaders, mayors, and governors and city councils have abdicated their responsibility in fighting crime and addressing mental illness,” said Schultz, who returned to the company as chief executive in April. “We are goi...

  The State Commission on Judicial Conduct has recommended Judge Franklin Bynum be suspended over allegations that consist of him being biased against prosecutors and easy on defendants. “I can’t remember the last time a judge has been suspended in Harris County based on something less than an allegation of criminal wrongdoing,” said KPRC 2 legal analyst Brian Wice. Bynum presides over Harris County Criminal Court at Law 8 and has been on the bench since Jan. of 2019. Ray Hunt, the Executive Director of Houston of the Houston Police Officers Union, told KPRC he filed a complaint against Bynum last year. “He’s an admitted socialist, he’s anti-police, he’s anti-government, he’s anti-victim and he’s definitely pro-suspect,” Hunt said. The commission charged Bynum with bias against the state, failure to comply and reasonable doubt regarding judicial impartiality. “These allegations aren’t criminal,” Wice said. “These allegations are more in line with a civil lawsuit that the commission...

  FOX 26's Randy Wallace and Crime Stoppers' Andy Kahan discuss the ongoing streamcast called BEHIND BREAKING BOND.  The guest is City Councilman Michael Kubosh.

  Even lefty Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg wanted him behind bars. A shoplifter with 122 busts under his belt was released on his own recognizance Wednesday thanks to controversial bail reform laws Bragg typically defends — and the DA’s office told The Post that even prosecutors would have asked for pre-trial detention if they could. In the latest reported case of lax city crime policies run amok, accused serial shoplifter Lorenzo McLucas, 34, was nabbed for stealing from the cosmetics counter at a Duane Reade on Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, according to cops and court documents. Bragg’s office told The Post that it would have requested McLucas be detained if it could, keeping in line with the DA’s recent announcement that he wanted to clamp down on serial shoplifters. “We cannot accept a system where individuals who shoplift again and again cycle in and out of jail, just to shoplift again,’’ Bragg had said in a June 17 statement — two days before city business owners revealed...

  By Douglas Griffith President of the Houston Police Officers' Union The Harris County criminal justice system was changed in 2019 after a high-profile court case resulted in a settlement agreed to by misdemeanor court judges who were serving at the time. The County entered into a consent decree in the case of ODonnell v. Harris County, which changed bail for misdemeanor cases. This consent decree effectively released almost all misdemeanor defendants on a free PR bond without ever seeing a judge, or anyone checking their prior criminal record. The county was set to spend over 97 million, to implement the settlement, but to say things have not run smoothly is an understatement. This past January, ODonnell was reversed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, yet the county refused to revisit the settlement. The County could have asked the federal court to vacate the decree but decided against it. Meanwhile, Texas Senate Bill 6 was passed thanks to Senator Huffman, changing Texas law...

  Grieving families are outraged that some violent, repeat offenders are getting bailed out of jail, only to commit more crimes. A community bail fund that helps indigent defendants is behind some of those releases, and relatives of the victims said they want some kind of accountability. The frustrated family members told KOMO News that they are sympathetic to suspects who really need and deserve help to come up with baily money in order to be released before their trial. However, they said it is unfair and dangerous to release violent offenders, some of whom go on to commit new crimes. For the family of Anthony Gonzalez, who was known as Gonzo, his relatives said they still are grappling with a profound feeling of loss since he was slain at a Seattle homeless encampment. His son, James, said he learned his father had had been murdered when he went to visit him at the Delridge homeless camp on June 20. Gonzo Gonzalez, 56, died after being shot in the face with a shotgun, Seattle po...

  A U.S. district judge has denied The Bail Project’s request for a preliminary injunction for a law that goes into effect on July 1. House Enrolled Act 1300 requires charitable bail organizations, like The Bail Project, to follow certain rules. “Basically what the Bail Project is trying to do here is to get the judge to throw out the law before it’s even gone into effect,” Paul Helmke, Professor of Practice at IU’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said. The judge’s denial of the request means the Bail Project must follow the law going into effect on July 1. The judge noted the reason for the denial is “because The Bail Project has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits justifying a preliminary injunction.” “Once the law’s in effect then it’s easier to argue the state’s written bad regulations or that the state has treated the Bail Project unfairly,” Helmke explained. “But ahead of time for a preliminary injunction, you have a very high standard.” In May...