91Ö±²¥

Do you realize you have probably used cashless bail? Did you ever get a traffic ticket? When you signed the bottom line on the ticket, you accepted cashless bail terms. That way, the officer did not have to take you to the police station to ruin your whole day and put you under arrest.

The state trusted you to show up in court to defend yourself or to pay the fine. This saves the officer and you the hours it would take if he arrested you on the spot. When they place a parking ticket on your windshield, the state is trusting you to pay the fine or show up in court. Otherwise, they might have to impound the car.

Today’s column was planned to be about a more local issue, traffic management, but Tuesday morning’s Donald Trump news was so offensive that I felt an urgency to respond to it as soon as possible. Is Trump’s executive order to end cashless bail just a ruse to get the Epstein files off the news?

In the not-too-distant past, offenders were arrested on the spot and thrown in the county jail, where accommodations were generally not very good. On the other hand, maintaining a decent jail for everyone who committed an offense gets incredibly expensive.

Incarcerating anyone in this century cost more than sending them to college. The government has to shelter them, watch them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and feed them. Since most of the offenders have committed some minor offense for which the worst case would be a few days in jail or a small fine, the state saves a lot of money with bail, even the cashless version.

In the Wild West, or the more distant past, a person who committed an offense who was not incarcerated, might be inclined to disappear, or self-exile (self-deport). Cash bail was invented to ensure the offenders appeared in court and make it possible to give everyone their day in court. Offenders who were deemed by the court likely to hurt someone could be jailed, no bail.

Of course, not everyone can afford the amount of money for the cash for the bail, so bail bondsmen have a business. The bondsman will post the bail and charge the offender a nonrefundable percentage and ensure that the person will appear in court. Bail bondsmen’s cappers, (bounty hunters) can operate in a gray area outside what the police can do without impairing the police ability to testify in court.

With untrained soldiers in the streets pretending to be peace officers, the number of pointless arrests will undoubtedly increase. Therefore, the number of people to be jailed will also increase. Where will they be put? The U.S. already has many more people incarcerated than any other free republic. Will military facilities that are not fully occupied be turned into prison camps? Can we afford to feed and clothe these people in a civilized manner? Will large numbers of civilians be dumped in hell holes like “Alligator Alcatraz,” El Salvador’s CECOT gulag or deported to Uganda?

Untrained unidentifiable thugs are making many arrests, claiming to be officers of the law but with questionable uniforms, documentation and information. Without cashless bail, our justice system would be overwhelmed and collapse. This will lead to incarceration for such minor offenses as burning a flag, questioning a “police” officer or making a video of his behavior, looking illegal, showing up at immigration court, hanging out near a 91Ö±²¥ Depot, working at a convenience store, possessing something that could be a weapon, or any traffic violation.

The very first exhibit at the Holocaust Museum shows how in the early days of Hitler’s regime, armed SA soldiers followed uniformed respected policemen in the streets and told the policeman who to arrest.

Is that the next step in the president’s strategy?

Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer and safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for 91Ö±²¥. Feedback is encouraged at obenskik@gmail.com.