,
5 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
HUGE. For decades, predominately service level workers were stopped, frisked, arrested, & prosecuted for criminal possession of a weapon for *carrying work knives.* Lead to criminal records, deportations, & other costly consequences. Cuomo twice vetoed repeal. Now justice.
An arrest & charge alone was damaging enough. Our immigrant clients were thrown into immigration detention and faced deportation for gainful work. A special kind of cruel.
Manhattan DA had a practice of using a provision of the law to charge people found carrying a work knife w/ a felony if that had a prior criminal record. Here was his office requesting $7,500 bail and charging the felony.
Last month, I met a man stopped for riding his bike on a sidewalk. They found and arrested him for a work knife. He got out, but his plea cost him $120 in mandatory court surcharges.
Every defender & far more people living in overpoliced communities have so many stories of the devastation of this completely unnecessary & wasteful law. All to say: Good riddance. Now, before end of legislative session: Legalize marijuana. End prolonged solitary. Fix parole.
