State rep introduces bill to stop non-profit bail funds from indiscriminately bailing out suspects

By Crime Watch MN, Mar. 18, 2022, news and commentary

On Thursday March 17, Minnesota legislative Rep. Mary Franson cited our work in documenting the Minnesota Freedom Fund’s reckless disregard for the safety of our community by bailing out violent and potentially dangerous offenders for the last 22 months.

On Thursday, Rep. Fransen introduced the “BANE Act,” HF 4252, in the legislature to ban irresponsible non-profit organizations like the Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF) from providing bail. When offenders are “gifted” bail and they and their friends/families have no stake in providing bail or putting up collateral, there is zero incentive for suspects to comply with conditions or return to court for hearings.

View Franson’s VIDEO at top or here: https://youtu.be/_WWqaHwCk0c

As we’ve documented, this dangerous organization is weaponizing their $40 MILLION dollar windfall in their political pursuit to end bail. MFF is actively causing harm and death to people in the Twin Cities and Minnesota through their reckless actions.

The non-profit bail fund, MFF, raised the celebrity-fueled $40M in donations during and after the 2020 George Floyd riots on the premise of bailing out “peaceful protesters.”

However, only about TWELVE protesters have been bailed out by MFF. Now MFF is just bailing out suspects indiscriminately with hardly a care over the severity of the crimes or the perpetrators’ criminal histories. The prior interim executive director of MFF even told Fox 9 that he doesn’t even look at the charges when he bails out suspects.

We urge you to contact your legislative reps and ask them to support HF 4252. Tell them that Minnesota courts place bail amounts on offenders who may be a safety risk to our communities, and that politically motivated organizations like MFF should not be allowed to weaponize their assets against the community by providing bail to suspects that may pose a risk to public safety. Find your state reps here: https://www.gis.lcc.mn.gov/iMaps/districts/

View our developing list of offenders we’ve compiled, so far, who’ve been bailed out by MFF, many of whom have been charged with new crimes within days of being released, including murder, sex offenses and serious assaults.

THE LIST: https://twitter.com/CrimeWatchMpls/status/1504823612628357121

Our list is by no means complete. We add perpetrators to the list as we stumble across their case info during our research. MFF refuses to provide a list of offenders they’ve bailed out and how many have been charged with new crimes or how many have been found not guilty.

We’ll be adding another chronic offender to the list later today, keep watching on Twitter.

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