Low bail set stage for massacre

We’ve been here before — too often. A heinous crime, a suspect arrested, his criminal record revealed, followed by — “who let him out on bail?”

In this case that suspect is Darrell Brooks Jr., alleged to have plowed his SUV into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wis., killing five and injuring scores of others, including children.

As the Associated Press reported, Brooks, who had a rap sheet going back to 1999, had two outstanding cases against him at the time of the parade atrocity.

One included an allegation that he deliberately hit a woman with his car earlier this month after a fight. Brooks was free on $1,000 bail.

Prosecutors in Milwaukee County on Monday called their bail recommendation “inappropriately low” given the facts of that case and the Sunday crash, and said they would review it.

It’s a bit late for that. Julius Kim, a defense attorney and former assistant prosecutor, said the bail could easily have been set more than twice as high.

“He was accused of running over the mother of his kid, and to put it at $1,000 strikes me as low,” Kim said.

“It could have been an inexperienced attorney who happened to be reviewing cases that day.”

It is a terrifying thought that a Christmas parade ending in death and mass injury may have hinged on an attorney’s inexperience. And a $2,000 bail for allegedly running over the mother of his child is still way too low.

But we live in an age where community safety comes second to the convenience of those charged with crimes, and even after the horror in Waukesha, legal pros are pushing back.

Higher bail amounts, they say, would keep poorer defendants behind bars longer pretrial.

“I’m sure the district attorney’s office is going to look back at this and ask themselves, ‘Did we get this wrong?’ ” said John Gross, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and also the director of its Public Defender Project.

“This is such an extreme incident … could they reasonably expect he would get behind a vehicle and run people down on a parade route? What would have alerted you to the capacity he would have had for this kind of violence?”

How about hitting the mother of his child with a car?

In Wisconsin, judges currently are only allowed to consider the possibility that defendants might not show up for a court appearance when setting bail.

That’s in line with Massachusetts 2018 criminal justice reform law, stating that bail should be set no higher than necessary to ensure the defendant shows up for court, after accounting for their financial resources.

Yes, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

But a record rife with arrests for violent behavior should have some influence over bail as much as a defendant’s finances.

Incarcerating people for being poor is, of course, heinous. But letting people out regardless of the severity of the crime they are accused of because they might not be able to afford bail?

We’ve seen the result in Waukesha.