Finally, some Democrats in the Legislature are pushing to fix the insane no-bail law.
Assemblywoman Inez Dickens (D-Harlem) has even gone public, provoked by the case of “poop attacker” Frank Abrokwa. She says Lt.-Gov. Brian Benjamin agreed with her: “Something’s got to be done about it.’” Another Assembly Dem told The Post, “We need to stop the bleeding,” asking, “Are we just going to wait around?”
Post sources say Gov. Kathy Hochul now wants it done as part of the state budget, which is a marked shift for her.
At least 12 Dems in the state Senate are on board, though Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (W’chester) and Queens’ own Sen. Mike Gianaris are trying to quash the rebellion.
And Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bx.) is adamantly against action, despite the appeals of Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell.
How many more horrors will it take to move Heastie & Co.?
“If we have to be afraid or just be constantly aware” of passers-by, “it’s not really a way to live,” fretted a 29-year-old Asian man who was struck in the head with a hammer after bumping into the attacker in the subway Tuesday. His attacker later allegedly vowed to “kill as many” cops as possible as soon as released.
That attack followed another hammer beating last month, also in the subway, when police say William Blount smashed “hero” city worker Nina Rothschild, 57, in the head and stole her pocketbook.
In a sane world, neither attacker would have been out on the street: Blount had previously been arrested a half-dozen times, while last week’s alleged assailant, Christian Jeffers, had been nabbed a stunning 47 times before Tuesday. Yet on Thursday, Manhattan Judge April Newbauer actually freed a career criminal accused of murder, Eugene Clark, without even the need to post bail.
Meanwhile, two men were shot also on Tuesday outside a Manhattan public-housing complex, and 91-year-old man was struck in the head with a cane. On Wednesday, an irate customer repeatedly stabbed a Harlem McDonald’s employee, leaving him fighting for his life.
Overall, major crimes in the city were up 47% for the year through March 6. Shooting incidents have risen 14% over 2021, bringing the two-year crime spike to a stunning 60%.
On Monday, Adams promised that the first of his new hybrid plainclothes crime teams — meant to replace the undercover units that targeted illegal guns before being scrapped by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2020 — will roll out within a week, a delay from the original Feb. 22 target date.
Yet the risk is that Adams’ efforts won’t just take too long but also prove insufficient: Hochul, for example, has so far refused to publicly back his calls to fix the state’s disastrous bail-reform and Raise the Age laws, while Heastie and Stewart-Cousins insist the reforms won’t help.
From Dickens to Hochul, everyone in Albany who sees the urgent need has to start telling the Legislature’s leaders: No criminal-justice reforms, no budget.
*story by The New York Post
