State Representative Mike Marron (R-Fithian) votes no on Democrats fourth Attempt to Fix Safe-T Act. The bill passed both legislative chambers Thursday evening. Rep. Marron released the following statement on his no vote.
“I again for the fourth time voted no on this hastily designed criminal justice reform bill. No matter how many trailer bills come along, Democrats still passed and signed the original SAFE-T Act over the objection of law enforcement groups and Republicans.
“The SAFE-T Act still exploits victims of violent crime, still ends cash bail, still does not provide due process to police officers anonymously accused of misconduct, and still cripples our law enforcement officers’ ability to do their job effectively.
“The SAFE-T Act has already had a chilling impact on recruitment and retention of police officers. The supporters of the bill have called out any opposition as promoting fear and spreading lies all while continuously shutting out Republicans from any negotiations to fix problems with the law.
“House Republicans have demanded good government and a transparent process since we first received this 700 + page bill in the middle of the night almost two years ago. This new 300-plus page amendment to the SAFE-T Act dropped late at night on the last week of Veto Session and once again, no House Republican member was invited to the table to participate in negotiations.
“We can only guess when we will be right back here adding more offenses to this list after more people become victims of crimes and more criminals become repeat offenders. Meanwhile, our citizens will live in less safe communities.
“Our police officers will still be subjected to unlimited anonymous complaints and our court systems will still carry the weight of these unfunded mandates. This bill actually lessens penalties on repeat offenders and reduces penalties for criminals that assault our corrections officers.
“Why should we have faith in this product after yet another criminal justice reform bill was crafted behind closed doors and dropped on us with less than one day to consider it? We don’t.”