A Minnesota bail fund supported and promoted by Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2020 summer of rage is guilty of letting a convicted felon back onto the streets just three weeks before he allegedly murdered a man.
The Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF) paid $2,000 on April 29 to bail 34-year-old Shawn Tillman out of jail after he was charged with indecent exposure for reportedly masturbating in front of a woman on St. Paul public transit.
Just three weeks later on May 20, Tillman, who has a history of felony convictions ranging from assault, illegal possession of a firearm, and indecent exposure in the presence of a minor, allegedly shot and killed a man at a downtown St. Paul light rail platform, a crime for which he has since been charged.
Despite Tillman’s swift return to violating the law, MFF defended its decision to bail out the career criminal. In a statement released last week, MFF Co-Executive Directors Mirella Ceja-Orozco and Elizer Darris explained that they were happy to subsidize Tillman’s return to the streets since his bail was cheaper than most of their requests and since they believe “wealth should not decide the difference between pre-trial detention and pre-trial release.”
“In all our bail decisions, we strive to balance pre-trial justice with community safety. As a community, we are struggling to navigate and solve violence in our neighborhoods,” the duo wrote. “We all want and deserve to be safe. But it is neither just nor effective to respond to violence by denying bail and pre-emptively punishing people who are disproportionately poor, Black, brown, and Indigenous.”
MFF has a history of paying for the release of dangerous criminals. In 2020, MFF shelled out $75,000 so a 36-year-old registered sex offender, who faced up to 30 years in prison for allegedly raping an 8-year-old girl, could walk the streets again. Before that, MFF bailed out a man who faced 20 years in prison for the burglary and assault of a 71-year-old woman.
Despite MFF’s history of releasing repeat offenders, Harris encouraged her Twitter followers to donate to the nonprofit in June of 2020 with the intent of bailing out rioters, looters, and arsonists who were charged with vandalism and other crimes following the death of George Floyd.
The tweet, which is still featured on the VP’s Twitter feed, directs users to a website created by the Democrat fundraiser Act Blue. The page is emblazoned with a photo of Harris and the words “Kamala Harris For The People.”
Thanks to Harris’s promotion, MFF raised $35 million in just a few weeks.
