SE Illinois News

State Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) is calling for a special session to address what he terms "mayhem" in Illinois streets.

In a recent Facebook post, Bailey shared a link to a Central Illinois Proud report that outlined what he's calling the session for. 

"During the special legislative session, Bailey said he would create a multi-stakeholder group consisting of doctors, first responders, churches, patients, home caregivers and teachers to 'identify the gaps that these tormented people are falling through and find solutions,'" the report said.

"The suffering, the loss, and the pain is absolutely nightmarish and ongoing, and it doesn’t have to be this way," Bailey said in his Facebook post. "I am calling for a special legislative session to take action to stop the mayhem in our streets. We must do whatever it takes to address the breakdown in mental health, particularly among isolated young men, which was made immeasurably worse during Pritzker’s lockdowns."

In February, Bailey was part of a group of senators who proposed a funding package to support police, give them funds, "keep violent offenders off of the street, help stop the flow of illegal guns to criminals, take serious action against carjacking, provide mental health treatment to detainees, and repeal the dangerous bail provisions of the anti-police 'SAFE-T Act,'" a My Radio Link release said.

"We shouldn’t be defunding police," Bailey said in the release. "We need more support to defend our police by providing officers and prosecutors the tools they need to get violent criminals off the streets and out of our communities. If this current administration has done anything, it has taken the ‘public’ out of public safety and out of taxpayer’s hands through an atrocious anti-police packaged called the ‘SAFE-T Act.’ Because of that, there is an average 20% vacancy rate in law enforcement positions across our state and Chicago is on track to lose 900 officers."

Following the recent Highland Park Parade shooting, Bailey drew criticism for raffling off an AR-15 rifle at a 2019 campaign event; an NBC News report said. A 2019 video on the senator's campaign Facebook page showed him—a state representative at the time—in front of a drum about to pick a name as winner of the gun. 

"As promised, we have held a raffle for an AR-15, a Smith & Wesson, and I have possession of that," he said in the video. It is not the only time Bailey has raffled off guns as part of his campaigns.