The System of Cash Bail is a Weapon of Class War

The following editorial argues that the system of cash bail is aimed at fleecing the poor of massive amounts of money in a system that rarely penalizes the wealthy.

In Humboldt county, located in Northern California, people are calling for a boycott on Sizzler and Subway in Eureka because the business owner bailed out her son accused of sexual child abuse twice in a short period of time. In Humboldt, people are waking up to the fact that wealth-based justice is not justice at all. Cash bail has to be gotten rid of if we want to have a system that even resembles justice. Protest against this scumbag and the unjust system that lets the connected walk and leaves the rest of us to rot and maybe die awaiting trial.

Andrew Cunningham has been brought up on charges of molestation of minor spanning a decade, and possession of child pornography is out on bail again. These crimes are horrendous and should not and will not be ignored by the public. Worse still, the fact is people with means seem to get off light, no matter what is reflected in everyday life and news. Harvey Weinstein who was also charged with decades of sexual abuse walked free quickly after being brought in.

This man walks free while many others have suffered and even died in jail without bail despite not being found guilty of any crime, besides the crime of being poor. Just read a sample of preventable deaths in the Humboldt County jail.

On August 9, 2007, Eureka police officers Justin Winkle, Adam Laird, Gary Whitmer, and 5 others beat an unarmed Martin Cotton II to death. they brought Martin to jail, never giving him medical treatment. Medical care could have saved his life. Martin died in the jail cell of blunt force head trauma. June 23rd, 2017 Colleen Marie Branch, 36, was found dead in Humboldt County jail, she was awaiting trial. Daren Ethan Borges, 42 died in the drunk-tank. The jail is not a safe place to be, and only those who can afford bail get to walk free.

Cash bail hurts poor people as a type of high-interest loan for freedom while the upper class can pay out of pocket or afford 10% fee to walk free despite the nature of the offense. It is a two-tier system. The level of bail and the right to get bail is more correlated to the class and social standing of the accused than whether they pose a threat to the public. In Humboldt, people are waking up to the fact that Wealth-based justice is not justice at all.

Abuses by business owners and their families are not focused on. This is some of the privileges defended by the law and order right wing. Where they long for a past when women and children were barely seen as human. They would rather scapegoat the homeless and the addicted that are anything but insulated from suffering in daily life. The right consequently doesn’t care that the cash bail system creates a two-tier system of justice just shows how they champion the insulated and protected status the owning class has from facing consequences of their actions. The good old boy network protects employers and their families from accountability.

Look at the woman who ran her daughter over, she has been vacationing for almost a year while the system by design has trouble prosecuting those with privilege, the very thing it is designed to protect.

This is the system of patriarchy it prioritizing privilege and power, retributive violence will always be primarily targeted downward towards people who do not have as much power in society. The priority is to punish lower class folks as if they and their problems are a sickness inherent to them and those of the dominant class are an anomaly. So drug crimes, thefts, and camping are seen as high priorities as they are disobedient. The culture of rape, sexual harassment, child abuse is largely ignored because the interests of victims run contrary to patriarchy, the way that those with enough power expect to act with virtual impunity. Like the president himself, has harmed so many and claims complete impunity for any crime.

photo: via Pixabay