The four Chicago torture suspects will be held without bail


The four African-Americans accused of brutally attacking a mentally disabled white man in Chicago and streaming the incident on Facebook Live will not be permitted to post bail before trial. All four are charged with hate crimes, and charges of aggravated kidnapping and battery with a deadly weapon have been filed as well.
"I'm looking at each of you and wondering where was the sense of decency that each of you should have had?" asked Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil at the bond court hearing for Jordan Hill, Tesfaye Cooper, and sisters Brittany and Tanishia Covington. "I don't see it," she added.
Defense attorneys argued that all four suspects have responsibilities to which they must attend, including Tanishia Covington's two young children, but Ciesil was unconvinced. The four have their next hearing on Jan. 27.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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