Study shows bail reform failed, Trump family’s bitcoin reek and other commentary

Crime beat: Study Shows Bail Reform Failed

A new analysis of New York’s bail reforms from John Jay College’s Data Collaborative for Justice does the opposite of what the researches claim, explains City Journal’s Rafael A. Mangual: It confirms “what bail-reform critics have been saying all along” — that “it was a bad idea” to “restrict bail while prohibiting judges from detaining dangerous pretrial defendants based on public safety risk.” Notably, when it comes to “high-risk” defendants, the “reduced use of bail” is linked to worse outcomes, including “higher arrest rates in general and for violent felonies in particular.” The findings “point in the same direction” as the researchers’ earlier analyses. But: “Will the politicians in Albany considering changes to bail policy be guided by evidence — or ideology?”

Liberal: Trump Family’s Bitcoin Reek

Cryptocurrency “has been spectacularly good for the Trumps,” reports The Free Press’ Joe Nocera, but oy, the ethical cloud! “Were [Donald] Trump not president, it is hard to imagine that there would have been much demand for any of Trump’s tokens,” but “meme coin sales generated $320 million in fees for the Trumps, as well as untold millions in the meme coins that the Trumps still hold.” Worse, in at least three cases, “people who helped enrich Trump and his family through the use of cryptocurrencies were looking for something from the administration” — and soon “got what they wanted.” One crypto billionaire who’d fled the country in 2023 after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged him “with manipulating the cryptocurrency market,” saw the SEC pause its case against him — seemingly indefinitely. Another crypto billionaire won a presidential pardon after a terrorism-linked money-laundering conviction. And the UAE won an OK to buy “advanced semiconductor chips—despite fears among national security experts that the UAE would give access to the chips to China.”

Conservative: Josh Shapiro’s Tough Choice

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, was “the obvious choice on paper” to be Kamala Harris’s veep choice last year, notes Commentary’s Seth Mandel, but his “visible and proud Jewishness” made him an “untenable option” for the party’s base after “Gaza became the litmus test for progressive political activist groups.” He’s a “swing-state moderate” who wins elections, but the “progressive base would rather lose than win with him.” He could win “a place in the party elite in return for a public apology for his Jewishness,” or at least if he learns “to keep mum unless he has an anti-Zionist-ish thing to say.” Will Shapiro “resist this quiet capitulation”?

From the right: ‘Choose Country Over Party’

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) “hasn’t just talked about opposing the shutdown — he has acted,” cheers the Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito, casting “15 votes in favor of reopening the government” while fellow Dems “voted against 15 times.” He calls his party’s shutdown strategy a “failure” because the deal now “agreed to is the exact same one that was on the table 40 days ago.” “Some Pennsylvania Democrats were already plotting to challenge him in a 2028 primary,” but “Fetterman has never been a favorite of his party’s establishment”: He wins because “voters have consistently stood by him.”

Campus watch: Rise of a Pro-Speech University

“Too many campuses seem committed to teaching their students what to think — not how to think,” but “a start-up university in Texas is showing that there is another path forward,” and it’s attracting attention, applauds USA Today’s Ingrid Jacques. Co-founded by The Free Press’ Bari Weiss, the University of Austin doesn’t “charge students tuition and does not accept government funding, relying instead on private donations.” And it just got a big one: Billionaire Jeff Yass “is donating $100 million.” “The same independence, curiosity and diversity of views” Weiss “brought to the news media are echoed” at UATX. While “the country’s historically esteemed colleges have some of the worst rankings for free speech,” “UATX wants the opposite for its students, who should not expect to be coddled.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board