The effects of the Black Lives Matter summer of 2020 continue to resonate long after the movement and its corruption have faded into the background.
The Northwest Community Bail Fund in Seattle was created in 2018, but it saw an increase in funding of nearly $2.5 million after the death of George Floyd inspired Democratic politicians, liberal celebrities, and other delusional people to donate to bail funds across the country. With that large pool of money, the group decided to start posting the bail of even more criminals.
What did the group consider when freeing criminals? Race, “gender status,” and “impending loss of job,” among other things. What did it not consider? Criminal history or propensity for violence.
As you can guess, this decision had lethal consequences.
The group posted bail for Kylan Houle, who had “well over 20 criminal convictions” and had failed to show up to court more than 50 times. Houle had a history of violence. The Northwest Community Bail Fund posted his bail in December 2021 and again in January 2022. In May 2022, Houle went on to allegedly shoot and kill 62-year-old Damon Allen after breaking into his home.
It’s always the violent career criminals you least expect. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Photo: jason redmond/Reuters |
The push to defund the police might have peaked after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, but a related movement is still going strong. As riots swept America’s cities, then-Sen. Kamala Harris and others appealed for donations to nonprofits dedicated to springing arrested protesters from jail and bailing out the poor. These bail funds existed before 2020, but they’ve since become big business—and in some cases undermine public safety.
A case in point is the Seattle-based Northwest Community Bail Fund, established in 2018 “to post bail on behalf of indigent individuals who have been charged and held on inaccessible bail while awaiting trial.” The group experienced a windfall in 2020, hauling in more than $5.7 million. It posted more than $2.8 million in bail for 696 people that year, up from around $377,000 for 227 defendants in 2019. It hasn’t released figures for 2021 and 2022.
Some defendants the bail fund has assisted have allegedly gone on to commit additional crimes, including violent ones. Three have been charged with murder. Among them is Kylan Houle, 32, who had two felony gun charges outstanding when he allegedly shot and killed Damon Allen, 62, in May 2022. Just before he was shot Allen had told a 911 operator someone was trying to break into his home.
Mr. Houle had “amassed well over 20 additional criminal convictions,” including felony assault and burglary, and had failed to appear in court more than 50 times, according to King County prosecutors. Despite his record, the Northwest Community Bail Fund posted $10,000 in bail for him on Dec. 4, 2021, when he was charged with first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a stolen vehicle and attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle; and another $100 in bail on Jan. 27, 2022, when he was charged with first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, according to court records. Those charges are still pending. Mr. Houle has pleaded not guilty to all these charges, and his lawyers didn’t respond to my queries.
The fund declined my interview request but said in a statement that as it makes bail decisions, it considers factors including “availability of funds,” “Covid outbreaks in jail,” “separation of families” and a defendant’s “ability to afford bail amount, health factors, pregnancy, impending loss of job, housing or shelter bed, race” and “gender status.” The list didn’t include prior criminal record. --->READ MORE HEREFollow link below to a relevant story:
+++++More liberal criminal justice reforms coming in 2023 despite increase in crime+++++
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