Mass. Bail Fund doubles down, doesn’t mention McClinton rape case in new statement
The Mass. Bail Fund was unrepentant in its first statement since freeing a convicted rapist now accused of striking again, with the organization doubling down on seeking to free people no matter the charge — and not even mentioning the rape case that’s put the fund in the headlines and has the mayor calling it “a disgrace.”
“We post bail for people regardless of charge or court history,” the bail fund wrote after days of ignoring requests for comment. “Our self-imposed monetary limit has only ever existed to ensure our often resource-limited fund remains sustainable and predictable for people seeking our assistance.
“We have communicated publicly that, when asked and able, we post bails that exceed our cap,” the statement adds. “Currently, as we explain on our website, we are exploring the financial feasibility of posting higher bails. We do this work because pretrial detention is harmful and racist.”
But nowhere in the statement does the fund mention either the name or case of Shawn McClinton, a Level 3 sex offender and twice-convicted rapist who the bail fund sprung on a 2018 aggravated rape charge, paying his $15,000 bail in mid-July. McClinton was charged last Thursday with kidnapping and raping another woman in Boston.
The fund’s statement refers vaguely to “recent articles” as part of a “broader right-wing attack on bail funds nationwide that use fearmongering to prop up a white supremacist institution rightfully under scrutiny.”
The fund has taken criticism from progressives including Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, and Boston University’s student radio WTBU, which canceled a planned benefit concert for the fund.
Asked about the bail fund, Mayor Martin Walsh called its actions around McClinton “a disgrace.”
“They bailed out a very violent person and maybe others — I don’t know. We are looking at it now,” Walsh said.
One of the Mass Bail Fund’s cousins is in the news now, too, as an early line of attack by President Trump’s campaign against newly-minted Democratic vice presidential pick Kamala Harris. The Trump camp hammered her on her support of the Minneapolis Freedom Fund, which was created to free people locked up during the riots there following the police killing of George Floyd. Both funds are listed as part of the National Bail Fund Network.
Harris, a senator from California — and the first Black and first Asian-American woman to be a major-party vice-presidential nominee — tweeted support for the fund June 1, asking anyone able to “chip in now.”
Several Trump campaign members seized on this after Harris was announced on Tuesday to be presumptive nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, with senior adviser Steve Cortes tweeting, “You won’t be safe in a Harris/Biden America.”
This type of criticism of Harris, likely to be a main line from Trump’s camp, sets up an unusual dissonance, with conservatives slamming her as a criminal-embracing left-winger even as the real hardcore lefties decry “Kamala the cop,” disliking the fact that she was in the business of prosecuting people as San Francisco DA and then California attorney general.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3iC4HwF
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