Ari Melber, MSNBC host, has shown that he has not learned anything from the disastrous bail reforms liberals have enacted in New York. He complained that reforms have not released enough criminals awaiting trial.
He tried to argue how easy it is for an innocent wrongly accused person to be held for many years in prison, but he misrepresented the facts by recalling the case a former gang member who had a criminal record and spent years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
Melber began the segment by recalling violence and poor conditions at Rikers Island in New York, which is used to hold defendants until they are tried. He also commented on how Rudy Giuliani, the Republican mayor of New York City, had pushed for prosecution of minor offenses to prevent more serious crimes.
Melber said that Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio, Democratic mayors, have not done enough to release prisoners in custody awaiting trial.
Modern democracies don’t do this at all. They don’t jail hundreds of thousands or more of defendants before they are tried. New York’s rising bail costs are now more than the average New Yorker’s annual salary or the entire year’s earnings. All this while America continues to expand and prolong a mass incarceration system, which grew from Jim Crow’s racist crackdowns against black Americans.
Melber later added, referring to the bail bonds system that lends money to criminal defendants to bail, “When it comes down to standing up to it, to dealing with Jim Crow capitalist Mass Incarceration in this country, well, you’ve heard it, they just want someone to solve it.”
To prove unfairness, he recalled the cases of Peter Navarro, a former Donald Trump advisor, being arrested for misdemeanor conditon of Congress. This was compared to the tragedy of Kalief Browder who was (possibly incorrectly) accused of both robbery, and assault and spent three year at Rikers Island. Melber recalled:
Kalief Browder is an example. He was only 16 years old when he was charged with stealing a backpack. But that was enough to put him in this system. His bail was set at $10,000, money that he and his family, as a 16 year old, did not have. He was held at Rikers for a longer time than he would have received if convicted of stealing the backpack. This is a Kafkaesque perversion in American justice. But the charge was dropped.
Browder’s trial was delayed too long, leaving him in jail for three years in very harsh conditions. However, Browder was not able to be bailed out as he had multiple prior run-ins against the law, including a felony conviction for vehicle theft eight months before. He was also still on probation. The new crime was a violent felony.
His mother had actually borrowed enough money to pay the $900 bond but the probation issue prevented him from being released. (The bail amount was $3,000, not $10,000 as Melber claimed.
Browder was indicted by a grand jury for assault and robbery. He was accused of punching his victim to steal his backpack, which contained approximately $1,000 worth of contents.
Van Jones, a liberal activist and CNN contributor, admitted that Browder had a history in gang activity prior to his Rikers Island stay.
In a misleading fashion, other media outlets have cited the case over the years, making it one the inspirations of the liberal bail reform movement.
Fidelity sponsored this misleading commentary. Their contact information can be found linked.
These transcripts are available:
MSNBC’s The Beat With Ari Melber
October 11, 2022
6:38 p.m. Eastern
ARI MELBER: This shows how our justice system continues its failure in 2022. Those who are wealthy and well-known are not usually held in jail before their trial. They can prepare for trial at home because the system favors their connections and money. This approach may work if you are legally presumed innocent and are not a flight risk. However, it is the poor and minor defendants who are routinely held at Rikers jails before trial. These are the conditions in which innocent people are held in America, and I am not going to show you any of them. … These photos and videos show that the vast majority of inmates are in prison waiting to be tried. They are legally presumed innocent, but too poor to be released or post bond.
(…)
What about the people who make up this data? Kalief Browder is an example. He was only 16 years old when he was charged with stealing a backpack. But that was enough to put him in this system. His bail was set at $10,000, money that he and his family, as a 16 year old, did not have. He was held at Rikers for a longer time than he would have received if convicted of stealing the backpack. This is a Kafkaesque perversion in American justice. But the charge was dropped.
(…)
Browder, a minor charged with petit theft, was found legally innocent and was incarcerated for three year. However, wealthy, connected defendants are free to await their felony trials. Some of them complained about the long hours and sometimes even years they spent in jail waiting for their booking. (PETER NAVARRO FORMER DONALD TRUUMP ADVISOR) Trump aide in custody awaiting trial.
(…)
Targeting alleged minor offenses by some people is not a defect in this type of mass imprisonment — it’s the whole point. Rudy Giuliani was exposed as a Trump associate and clashed against law and democracy long before Mr. Giuliani led a controversial 1990s crackdown specifically on deliberately petit offenses — the small stuff. They advocated prioritizing prosecutions for things like breaking windows and flooding prisons with all accused offenders.
MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI (from the 1990s: A person breaks a window in a building. Your building will eventually fall because they thought the first problem was too small. (editing jump). You have to be aware of someone urinating in the street. It could be something minor, or it could be something serious.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN VOICE: The problem is “Broken Windows”, cops have different ways of governing police, depending on who you are.
BILL WEIR (ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT),: This controversial tactic is designed to stop crime from happening. They claim that the NYPD stops or frisks too many innocent men of colour for no reason.
MELBER: Today, Mr. Giuliani was indicted by prosecutors on charges that go beyond urination and breaking windows. He is a target of the Trump election inquiry. But it was Mayor Giuliani’s crackdown and a wider drug war that caused the Rikers population — America’s second-largest incarceration facility — to soar.
(…)
MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, D-NEW YORK CITY: We need a plan B because the people who created a plan A and inherited it didn’t — clearly didn’t think of a plan. Take a look at the incarceration figures. (Editing jump) If you have a higher population that can be accommodated in the borough-based jails than before, what do you do with those who continue to commit shootings, robberies and other crimes? What can we do with them?
MELBER: What do we do with defendants who are awaiting trial? The mayor knows the answer. The government doesn’t do anything for wealthy and powerful defendants. It doesn’t spend your money – your tax dollars housing them, or putting them into very dangerous conditions where they might be beaten or killed prior to trial. This is not the way pre-trial detention should operate.
(…)
Modern democracies don’t do this at all. They don’t jail hundreds of thousands or more of defendants before they are tried. New York’s rising bail costs are now more than the average New Yorker’s annual salary or the entire year’s earnings. All this while America continues to expand and prolong a mass incarceration system, which grew from Jim Crow’s racist crackdowns against black Americans.
(…)
The Rikers problem, jail problem, bail problem are so clearly stated that even the people in charge admit to having them. We have shown them admitting to the problem. They just want someone else to fix it, even though they have admitted to the problem.
(…)
MSNBC’s The Beat With Ari Melber
October 11, 2022
ARI MELBER : Take Kalief Browder. He was only 16 years old when he was accused for stealing a backpack. But that was enough to put him in this system. His bail was set at $10,000, money that he and his family, as a 16 year old, did not have. He was held at Rikers for a longer time than he would have received if convicted of stealing the backpack. This is a Kafkaesque perversion in modern American justice.
(…)
Spike’s Time: The Kalief Browder Story
Episode 2:
VAN JONES CNN CONTRIBUTOR: He may have been in trouble before but suddenly he is hit upside the head by a huge injustice stick. He was innocent at that moment. That matters to people.
KALIEF BROWDER – I didn’t rob anybody.
KAMAL BROWDER BROTHER OF KALIEFBROWDER: He changed after he was locked up. He didn’t want to be called “Spade” anymore. He was like, “I am not that person.” Spade is not the right name for me. Call me Kalief.”
JONES: He was gang-affiliated when he was out on the streets. He refused to be gang-affiliated when he was taken to jail.
(…)
CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight
July 22, 2022
LAURA COATES – I can remember when the law was discussed because I think of Kalief Browder, a young boy who was accused of having stolen a backpack. I also think about the presumption that he was innocent and the tragedy that engulfed his family due to not being able make bail.
(…)
MSNBC’s The Beat
July 20, 2022
ARI MELBER : Take Kalief Browder. He was an innocent 22 year-old man, never convicted of any crime. He was legally innocent to the system. He was in prison awaiting trial, but he was kept in solitary confinement for two years. He then died in Rikers jail in a suicide attempt. What crime was he accused of while he was legally innocent? What was he currently awaiting trial? Stealing a backpack. He was held in prison longer than his likely sentence for the minor offense of stealing backpacks.
