🔥 from @NYTimes Ed Board. Calls on prosecutors & police to stop fearmongering on bail reform: “Panic from NY’s law & order crowd is nothing new. Those trying to undermine public trust in long-overdue reforms should instead get to work making the change.”nytimes.com/2019/11/17/opi…
This Editorial is a scathing indictment of desperate, cynical, yet historically successful efforts by procarceral forces to scare away needed reforms & maintain mass incarceration. The NYT appropriately labels this strategy: “A Sad Last Gasp Against Criminal Justice Reform.”
The opportunity & challenge: “Across the country, a movement away from incarceration has been a rare point of consensus among Americans.
Yet talking about reform is one thing. Doing the work — asking for public trust while emptying cells in jails & prisons — will be harder.”
Yet talking about reform is one thing. Doing the work — asking for public trust while emptying cells in jails & prisons — will be harder.”
Last year, NY passed landmark reforms going into effect in January 2020: “People charged w misdemeanors & nonviolent felonies will in most cases be released pending their trials. Prosecutors will be required to disclose evidence to the defense earlier than shortly before trial.”
The changes in NY are commonsense & we know they work:
“Similar reforms in New Jersey and elsewhere have reduced jail populations without endangering public safety.”
Great news, right? Not for prosecutors & police who view change as an existential threat to their power.
“Similar reforms in New Jersey and elsewhere have reduced jail populations without endangering public safety.”
Great news, right? Not for prosecutors & police who view change as an existential threat to their power.
What do prosecutors & police do when their power is threatened? Stoke fear & complain. NYT details:
NYPD Chief: “Significant negative impact on public safety.”
Police union: “Wrong & insane!”
Meanwhile, Prosecutors trained “on how to work w/ police to subvert the new law.”
NYPD Chief: “Significant negative impact on public safety.”
Police union: “Wrong & insane!”
Meanwhile, Prosecutors trained “on how to work w/ police to subvert the new law.”
Trump even joined forces w/ NY prosecutors/police: “So sad to see what is happening in NY where Cuomo & DeBlasio are letting out 900 Criminals, some hardened & bad, onto the sidewalks of our rapidly declining, because of them, city. The Radical Left Dems are killing our cities.”
Then prosecutors & police started lobbying legislators, & in the past week republicans have introduced legislation to undermine, roll back, & even kill the reforms before they even go into effect.
NYT sets fearmongerers straight: “Experience elsewhere & ample research show there is no reason to believe NY reforms will lead to mayhem, or endanger the public. In fact, studies suggest the opposite may be true: pretrial detention makes people likelier to commit future crimes.”
NYT likens the current “panic from the “law & order crowd” in NY to some of the most infamous abuses of the past. Rockefeller drug laws. The Trump ad calling for executing 5 innocent teens. Bloomberg’s “dire warnings” that less “stop & frisk would lead to an increase in crime.”
I love this line on Bloomberg’s historical claims on stop & frisk in light of his apology yesterday about supporting it (& using fear to perpetuate it): “Their predictions turned out to be bunk — stops have plummeted, while crime remains at record lows.”
🔥🔥“Cuomo, lawmakers & de Blasio, all of whom supported the reforms, should stand proudly behind them. Prosecutors & police unions trying to thwart the will of the voters & undermine the public’s trust in long-overdue reforms should instead get to work making the change.”🔥🔥
