This is one of the major drivers of crime in Charlotte — bond amounts that haven’t kept up with inflation, or sanity.
Police nabbed Brandon Berg for breaking into cars, at least 20 of them. He is being held on a $5,000 bond.
That means he only has to come up with about $500 to get out. Given his long criminal record, it’s pretty predictable that he will immediately go back to breaking into cars and stealing things. Or maybe, since breaking into cars and auto theft are gateway crimes to armed robbery, he’ll pick up a gun and stick it in some poor clerk’s face, if the hasn’t already. He has been arrested seven times since October 2010, and committed most of his crimes, both felonies and misdemeanors, while out on bond for other crimes.
Here is how similar crimes are handled elsewhere. In Raleigh, two NC State athletes charged with breaking into about half as many cars got $50,000 bond.
Let’s at least give people like this a respectable $20,000 bond like in this case in Michigan.
About once a decade, court officials for the local system get together and set bond guidelines. They need to do it again.
If fed chair Ben Bernanke launches QE3, essentially another round of money printing, these guys will be bonding out with the change in their pockets.
