Rapper 50 Cent – real name Curtis Jackson – warned in an Instagram post that LA is "finished" due to the zero-bail policy. He captioned a clip from an evening newscast aired by FOX 11: "LA is finished. Watch how bad it gets out there. SMH [Shaking my head]."
Under the zero-bail policy, officers of the LA County Police Department (LAPD) won't detain suspects accused of misdemeanor crimes. This also extends to theft, shoplifting, drug use, vandalism, battery and other nonviolent crimes. Those currently in jail on such charges would also be set free.
However, a suspect violating the zero-bail schedule is immediately put back on a cash bail system. This was not the first time the City of Angels implemented such a policy. During the height of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, LA put the zero-bail policy in place to reduce crowding in jails and curb the spread of COVID-19 before ending it in September 2022.
State law allows judges to set bail based on the defendant's criminal record and the seriousness of the crime. However, the policy was reinstated in May after LA County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff sided with a group of activists who sued the county. The activists claimed that they had suffered under the cash bail system. (Related: Los Angeles Dems offer plan to 'depopulate' county jails, claiming 'systemic racism' causes them to fill up.)
San Francisco, which is similarly plagued with crime, also had a zero-bail policy under then-District Attorney (DA) Chesa Boudin. Current San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins continued the zero-bail policy, but her version permits cash bail in rare and "limited misdemeanor cases."
LA prosecutors agree with the rapper's take
LA County Deputy DA John McKinney told the New York Post he was glad 50 Cent's comments reignited the debate around the controversial issue. The deputy DA was featured in the FOX 11 news segment posted by the rapper.
"I thought it was refreshing to have a celebrity from whatever walk of life to have the courage to speak against the trend of anti-law enforcement rhetoric that we hear. Hearing the litany of crime after crime that's taking place in our streets was shocking to people," he said.
"Social media is flooded with [examples of] battery after battery. But our policies are moving in the opposite direction to what is playing out in our streets and what people are seeing on their TV [sets]."
While McKinney acknowledged that "some changes to the system needed to be made," he lamented that magistrates in California "are making these decisions without any real guidance or any kind of principled guidance that would lead to consistency throughout the state."
He continued: "Given the politics of LA County today, it didn't shock me that none of our local leaders had the courage to challenge the idea that people should not be released without bail under any circumstance."
Orange County DA Todd Spitzer also agreed with the rapper's prediction about the zero-bail policy worsening the City of Angels' crime situation. He told Fox News: "His advice is at least worth $1, but my question is: Where has he been this whole time? I'm not a listener of 50 Cent, but he has a lot of influence and a lot of followers. It's about time the music industry and the Hollywood elite get their arms around this problem and start to speak out."
Visit CaliforniaCollapse.news for more stories about the crime situation in LA.
Watch this video about skyrocketing crime in Los Angeles and other parts of the United States.
This video is from the EARTH SHAKING NEWS channel on Brighteon.com.
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