Future of criminal justice in New York City up in the air
COURIER L 32 IFE, MAY 10–16, 2019 PS
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The unfortunate passing of
Queens District Attorney
Richard Brown last week
was a stark reminder of how
far left Democrats in New York
have tilted on criminal justice
issues.
Specifi cally, Brown, a Democrat,
boasted the highest conviction
rate of the fi ve boroughs.
This is an accomplishment to
be proud of by most. After all,
our justice system consists of
our police arresting those that
break the law and district attorneys
fully prosecuting them.
This was part of New York
City’s renaissance from the
“bad old days” when there
were more than 2,100 murders
in 1991, when Brown was fi rst
appointed to his position by
former Gov. Mario Cuomo, to
fewer than 300 last year. Brown,
who served as DA for almost 28
years, understood his role and
performed it with distinction.
Unfortunately, the vast majority
of today’s Democrats who
have total control of our city and
state government, have a far
different view of how the criminal
justice system should work.
To them, the goal is to protect
those who commit crimes over
their victims and law-abiding
New Yorkers. This is their
criminal justice “reform.”
Indeed, because Brown had
the audacity to actually do his
job and put criminals behind
bars, the new radical left in New
York City was coming after him
even if he did not announce in
January that he would not seek
re-election this year. He would
have faced multiple opponents
in a primary because he was
tough on crime and never
signed on to the criminal bill
of rights syndrome affl icting
many other local district attorneys
and lawmakers.
Brown’s common sense approach
to running his offi ce
included creating a domestic
violence bureau, a Treatment
Intervention program to help
addicts, fi ghting human traffi
cking, and, yes, prosecuting
and putting away those who
commit crimes. In contrast,
Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez
recently announced his own
Criminal Protection Plan or socalled
“Justice 2020 Initiative.”
This instructs his prosecutors
to seek “non-jail resolutions at
every juncture of a case.”
To be fair, Gonzalez did say
that “most often” prison will
be sought for murderers and
rapists. This is great, but other
lawbreakers don’t have to fear
prison time. This policy of coddling
criminals is just a continuation
of the softer approach to
crime being adopted by other
DAs and legislators.
Think about it this way — if
you are considering stealing a
few steaks from a supermarket,
breaking into a home or car,
violating an order of protection,
or menacing straphangers
on a subway, you must fi rst
get caught. Then, even if you
are arrested by the police, you
know you will not face jail time.
So, the odds are stacked in your
favor, so why not do the bad
deeds? One does not need an
Ivy League degree to fi gure out
if there is not a threat of serious
consequences, more will feel
emboldened to commit crimes.
Several NYPD sources in
Brooklyn told me that even before
Gonzalez announced his
new initiative, not sending
perps to jail has been the norm.
These offi cers said one of their
new toughest jobs is explaining
to victims why those who committed
a crime against them
are not going away.
Not surprisingly, the de
Blasio administration just announced
that the prison population
in the four new borough
jails that will replace Rikers
Island will be sharply reduced
from current levels. He is not
a fortune teller, so how can he
know that less people will commit
crimes? The way he knows
there will be less people in jail
is because the mission of most
city and state Democrats is to
keep those that violate laws
out of them. To hell with the
victims and law-abiding New
Yorkers.
We have already decriminalized
most quality-of-life crimes,
have stopped prosecuting those
who beat the fare on buses and
subways, and DAs like Gonzalez
and those running to replace
Brown in Queens have
announced that they seek to
send less criminals to jail.
It will only get worse, because
as part of the recently
passed state budget, another
piece of the progressive criminal
protection plan was included.
Effective in January
2020, cash bail will be eliminated,
including for felony offenses.
One of the few common
sense Democrats left, Staten
Island DA Michael McMahon
said, “The actions they the
state legislature have taken
will put victims in danger and I
quite frankly do fi nd the whole
package unfathomable and outrageous…
many people accused
with violent crimes, serious
felonies are going to be back on
the street.”
We should not have to wait
for the inevitable rise in crime
that will occur with these lunacy
policies for lawmakers to
return to normalcy with criminal
justice policies. And for district
attorneys to again realize
that their role is to prosecute
criminals and not act as their
second defense attorney to keep
them out of jail. DA Brown always
understood this.
Bob Capano has worked for
Brooklyn Republican and Democrat
elected offi cials.
THE RIGHT
VIEW
Bob Capano