Chief Operating Officer, Vericel
Search every verified Michael Halpin interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a September 2023 interview, Michael Halpin, the Democratic candidate for Illinois's 36th Legislative District, outlined his top three priorities as bringing jobs to the area, lessening the pain of high inflation, and passing responsible budgets that provide inflation relief. Halpin stated that he stands with workers and wants Illinois to be a friendly state for workers, including cracking down on companies that steal wages and maintaining strong laws for collective bargaining. Halpin also discussed his support for the SAFE-T Act, which he said ensures every person taken into custody is seen by a judge who determines if they are too dangerous to be out prior to trial. He argued that the current system allows alleged criminals to buy their way out and that the act provides a threat-based system that keeps dangerous people behind bars while allowing those who cannot afford bond to avoid losing their jobs or failing out of school. Halpin added that the bill provides mental health support, extra training, body cameras, and a certification and decertification process for law enforcement, and he accused his opponent of misleading voters about the bill's contents.
“My top priorities are to continue to try to bring jobs back to this area. Second is to continue to lessen the pain of the high inflation that we've seen over the past year and a half or so. And then third, make sure that we're continuing to pass responsible budgets that actually help people, but again, still provide fo...”
“On every issue that you can think of, I stand with workers. I want to make sure that Illinois is a friendly state for workers. I want workers to know that we're out there making sure that we're protecting them on the job.”
“I want to make sure that we're cracking down on companies that are stealing from the wage staff, from their employees, making them clock out and then continue working, things like that. Illinois is a very strong state for that.”
“I want to make sure that Illinois has the strongest possible laws when it comes to maintaining the rights to collectively bargain for wages, benefits and working conditions as a state representative.”
“What the Safety Act does is make sure that every person taken into custody is seen by a judge, and that judge is going to determine whether or not that individual is too dangerous to be out prior to trial.”
“Right now we've got a system that alleged criminals can come in and buy their way out, regardless of the offense that they've committed. We don't want to have domestic abusers be able to be arrested by their freedom and go back and immediately intimidate the person that they're accused of harming.”
“We need to get back to what is a threat based system. It keeps dangerous people behind bars pending trial, but it also allows folks that may have made a mistake but can't afford the relatively modest bond to make sure that they're not losing their job or failing out of school, which can make it harder for them to be pr...”
“Police have the discretion to take anyone into custody if they're on your property and to arrest them if they refuse to leave. This bill provides for mental health and support services for our law enforcement. It provides for extra training for law enforcement officers. It provides for the use of body cameras across th...”
“It also provides a certification and decertification process that the Attorney General agreed with law enforcement. And you know, my opponent wants to go back and undo all of these good things in the bill while misleading voters about what's actually in there.”
The Democratic candidate for Illinois's 36th Legislative District sat with News 8's Shelby Kluver to showcase his policies and ...
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