New York crime wave solutions by Sean Hayes, candidate, NYC Council District 1? Another troubling statistic was the surge in hate crimes targeting Asian New Yorkers. The city saw 31 such incidents in March 2021, averaging out to one per day; there were none recorded at the same time last year. The NYPD’s stats marked the first year-to-year comparison between months impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus was first officially detected in New York City on March 1, 2020, and within about two weeks, ordinary life in the five boroughs practically ceased as schools and businesses shut down en masse, and people confined themselves at home.
According to a report released by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice in January, between 95% and 97% of the tens of thousands of New Yorkers who were arrested and charged with a crime in 2020 were not rearrested for another crime while awaiting their case. Of the group who were rearrested after being released without bail, less than 1% were charged with a violent felony. Of the roughly 9,000 New Yorkers awaiting trial on a violent felony charge in September of 2020, 96% were not rearrested on any charge, and 99% were not arrested for another violent felony, according to the report. These figures have remained steady before and after bail reform was passed. “There isn’t a viable, reliable connection between, these folks are being released pretrial, and these are the same folks who are going out picking up guns and committing shootings and other serious crimes,” said Krystal Rodriguez, the deputy director of jail reform at the Center for Court Innovation. If anything, New York’s judges increased the number of cases in which they set bail in the latter half of 2020, a rise that a Center for Court Innovation study attributes in part to “unsupported claims from public officials, amplified in the media, that bail reform was a primary factor in New York City’s spike in shootings and murders in 2020.”
Election of Brooklyn’s District Attorney Eric Gonzales and other pro-reactionary radical criminal-justice reform movement prosecutors led to the decriminalization of many crimes, the emboldening of criminals and the acquiescing to bail, by prosecutors, in all but the most exceptional of cases. This led to an increase of dangerous suspects and convicts on our streets. In 2017, the NY City Council passed legislation that moved to close Riker’s Island and to replace Riker’s Island with jails around the City. With one jail scheduled to be built in City Council District 1. The new proposed system shall, only house 1/2 of the present jailed population. Thus, the Mayor’s Office and City Council proposed additional alternatives to incarceration programs such as the Mayor de Blasio and the NY City Council commenced program to decrease the number of people in prison and implement a supervised release program. Many of those scheduled to be released shall be dangerous to the community. Find additional info at Crime Reduction & Safe Streets Program New York 2021.
The best explanation I have seen of the issues we are facing with politics is described by Mr. Rafeal Mangual. He notes in a great article on crime in New York that: “The radical wing of the criminal-justice reform movement has enjoyed enormous legislative and electoral success over the last few years, in New York and elsewhere. Such success owes much to the impression—carefully crafted and nurtured by those leading the movement—that the fight for reform is, à la Public Enemy, a fight against “the power.” David versus Goliath. Meek Mill versus The System. But that’s all just a smokescreen. When the smoke clears, it reveals that those leading the movement to de-police city streets and depopulate jails and prisons are the power. As such, they should be held accountable for their ‘victories’—and what follows from them.” Rafael A. Mangual
Sean Hayes a 47-year old NY Attorney; Head of an International Law Firm; former lawyer working in China, Korea & Southeast Asia; former Professor, CEO, Dean of a UN University and Journalist fears that our City shall turn to the Dark Days of the 80s and early 90s, because of reactionary and radicalized politics in New York and the lack of experience, pragmatism, and problem-solving skills of our politicians. Sean is running in the Democratic Primary for City Council in District 1. Sean looked around and saw that the majority of candidates running for NY City Council and for Mayor lacked experience, centrist viewpoints & pragmatism and were too radicalized to manage the needs of residents of New York City. Discover more info on https://www.seanhayes4nyc.com/.