Admin
Staten Island DA Michael McMahon is rightly blasting Albany for refusing to repair the state’s disastrous criminal-justice legal guidelines.
Problem is, the Legislature’s been refusing to hearken to anybody in legislation enforcement — prosecutors, cops or criminal-justice specialists (except they lean onerous left) — ever because it began down the “criminal-justice reform” path.
Progressives’ overriding precedence is defending criminals. To hell with prosecutors — and the general public.
On Sunday, McMahon called lawmakers’ latest puny tweak (eradicating the mandate that judges impose the “least restrictive” circumstances on defendants freed earlier than trial) a mere “Band-Aid.”
That’s an overstatement.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins refused to lift a finger to plug any of the different big holes in New York’s “reforms,” and Gov. Kathy Hochul didn’t ship.
“We nonetheless have expenses that aren’t bail-eligible,” seethed McMahon.
“The industrial burglar, who’s actually terrorizing New York City,” the drug seller, the individual with “a historical past of violence — they may nonetheless not be bail-eligible.”
Specifically, McMahon linked Gotham’s crime surge to “bail reform,” the Raise the Age legislation and “discovery” guidelines for sharing felony proof, which collectively eliminated “accountability from the criminal-justice system.”
Of course, prosecutors, police, judges and others might’ve predicted that may occur.
Did predict, actually.
Which is precisely why lawmakers refused even to consult with legislation enforcement again once they handed the reforms.
Heastie & Co. didn’t need to listen to in regards to the nightmares they have been inflicting.
Just this 12 months, they refused to let progressive Albany DA David Soares testify, realizing he’d make too robust a case.
Hochul, in the meantime, needs another person to do the heavy lifting.
When lawmakers balked at even her tiny tweaks on discovery, she folded like an affordable go well with, figuring DAs Alvin Bragg (Manhattan), Darcel Clark (The Bronx) and Eric Gonzalez (Brooklyn) could possibly be blamed for not uniting on the specifics.
Actually, the three were desperate for fixes, arguing that “hundreds of [criminal] circumstances have been needlessly dismissed” as a “direct end result” of the 2019 discovery legislation.
Major crimes within the metropolis have been up 32% final 12 months over 2019; this 12 months, they’re operating 45% larger than two years in the past.
New York’s prime lawmakers put criminals first.
If voters need to halt crime, they should intestine the Legislature as completely because it gutted the justice system.
