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John,
This week the Orland Park Village Board passed a resolution demanding a repeal of the “SAFE-T” Act. This is dangerous legislation that everyone in a position of public trust needs to speak out against.
First, it was passed in the middle of the night, with 40 minutes to read an 800-page bill, which is unacceptable.
As of January 21, 2023, the following things will go into effect:
- It abolishes cash bail for almost every offense. This includes, but is not limited to: kidnapping, armed robbery, second-degree murder, drug-induced homicide, aggravated DUI, threatening a public official, and aggravated fleeing and alluding.
- Offenders on electronic monitoring must be in violation for 48 hours before law enforcement can act. (They could almost drive to Alaska before we could even look for them).
- It denies victims their constitutional rights
- And keep this in mind, businesses and homeowners: Officers will no longer be allowed to remove trespassers from your residence or business. (Someone could decide to live in your shed, and all we can do is give them a ticket. You have to decide what level of force is required to remove them… and whether or not it’s legal.)
This is a massive threat to the residents of Orland Park, Cook County, and Illinois. I want to remind voters that several elected officials that will be on the ballot in Orland Park voted for this abomination. Senator Michael Hastings, Senator Emil Jones, and Representative Justin Slaughter all voted to put criminals ahead of the safety of law-abiding citizens and police.
In particular, Senator Hastings, who personally told me that this bill was horrible, and that there was no way he would vote for it. An outright lie.
I was glad to cast my vote for this resolution and demand the repeal of the Orwellian-named “SAFE-T Act.”
But it doesn’t end there.
There’s currently a bill in front of the Illinois House to remove school resource officers from our schools. The City of Chicago has already done this. I personally don’t want to see the City of Chicago become the standard for how we conduct public safety, because they’ve abandoned their police officers, abandoned their residents, and created a war-zone full of criminals.
There is also a bill to make fentanyl a misdemeanor in this state.
Let me remind you, at the federal-level, Sean Casten, voted against extending the federal ban on fentanyl. Fortunately, the ban passed.
It is additionally, worth noting that Casten co-sponsored the anti-police bill in the US House that would have eliminated qualified immunity for police officers. We already can’t fill vacancies in our police departments, this would aggravate the problem exponentially.
We all need to take a stand against these dangerous bills, and the politicians who advance them.
Thank you,
Keith Pekau
Mayor of Orland Park
Republican Nominee for Illinois’ Sixth Congressional District
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