Leading into the COVID pandemic, one of the biggest things the left was pushing for wasn't lockdowns, shutting down private businesses, or any of the hysteria they engaged in starting after Joe Biden took office in 2020. In fact, most denied COVID-19 was even a thing to be concerned about until they could leverage it for their own purposes.
No, one of the things they were worried about was bail reform, also termed "criminal justice reform."
See, they didn't think those arrested should be held if they didn't have money for bail. They argued that people were essentially being imprisoned without having been tried first.
And a lot of people swallowed that, and our jails might as well have installed revolving doors, because violent criminals were often right back out on the streets within minutes after their arrests.
Some Democrats have tried to walk that back, but I'm going to say that we do need bail reform and criminal justice reform. We just need it in a different direction.
Jason Michael McCarthy was arrested in Hunt County, Texas, on December 15, 2021, for the crime of continuous sexual assault of a child under 14. That means he was accused of two or more acts of sexual assault over a period of time that was at least 30 days, if not longer. He was released on $20,000 bond.
Yet, he was picked up in Humboldt County, Texas, around July 4 of this year.
Why was he in Humboldt County and not in prison? Because this accused child molester, a man who allegedly assaulted his own children, just vanished for nearly four years after posting bond.
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What's worse, it seems the children's mother has seen little from the system she trusted to punish this man except indifference.
As people throughout the nation, on both sides of the aisle, demand to see the Jeffrey Epstein Files – and I'm one of them, for the record – people seem to forget that there are problems even with the non-elites accused of horrific crimes against children.
The law in Texas isn't forgiving. McCarthy faces a minimum of 25 years in prison up to life without parole. If he committed these terrible acts, he deserves every minute of that time and then some.
But for people within the system to blow off a concerned mother who wants justice for her babies is wrong. Allowing a dangerous predator to walk free among us is wrong.
Someone once said that you can judge a society by how it treats its most vulnerable members.
A guy – I can't call someone like this a man – walking around free for over three years after being accused of some of the most vile things an individual can do can't be looked at as the cost of doing business. It can't just be viewed as one of those things we're powerless to do anything about.
The system can and should do better.
Our kids deserve to be able to live their lives as free from this sort of thing as we can manage.
How many other people could McCarthy have sexually assaulted from 2021 to now? I don't know if we'll ever know if there are any victims, though I suspect there are.
Had the system been better equipped to keep track of him, preferably inside a cell, then there wouldn't be any question, and these children would have already seen justice delivered.
Instead, they've had to wait way too long.
We can do better.
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