Bail reform clobbering Long Island Democrats
Bail reform in New York took effect Jan. 1.
Three weeks later, Long Island Democrats are getting clobbered in the polls.
Yesterday, Jan. 21, the Siena College Research Institute released a poll that showed 64 percent of downstate suburbanites -- ie Long Islanders -- were opposed to bail reform. That was a significant swing from last year when a majority of voters -- 55 percent -- across the state thought bail reform would be good for New York.
All of Long Island's Democratic senators and assembly members joined with the new progressive Democratic majority in Albany last year to eliminate bail for most crimes in the state. All of Long Island's Republicans in Albany voted against it.
The move made sense on paper. Poor people accused of low-level crimes, such as shoplifting, should not stay in jail because they, or their relatives, cannot afford to post bail. Bail is supposed to ensure that suspects return to court when their case is heard.
But Albany Democrats took it too far.
Since Jan. 1, under the new law, judges have been forced to release suspects, even those accused of violent crimes, only to see them go out and commit another crime...in one case, 20 minutes after leaving court.
The Siena poll sampled voters between Jan. 11 and Jan. 16, just two weeks after bail reform took effect.
Generally it takes three weeks for the public to become aware of an issue.
That means, by now, even more people oppose bail reform.
Here are some reasons.
Nassau Presiding Officer Rich Nicolello, a Republican from New Hyde Park, listed some results from bail reform during his Jan. 13 induction speech. According to a video of the event, Nicolello said:
*In Nassau County, we had high-level felony drug dealers who were held on hundreds of thousands of dollars in bail released.
*A suspect accused of aggravated assault on a child less than 11 years old released.
*Several residential burglars, one of whom burglarized a house with intent to commit a sex crime, released.
*One suspect charged with four burglaries in Westbury was released and arrested within two days for another burglary in Carle Place.
*We have at least 61 known gang members released in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
*In Brooklyn, a woman charged with punching and cursing three Orthodox women in Crown Heights was released and then rearrested the next day when she assaulted another woman.
*In Syracuse, a man accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend, charged with second degree
* In Albany, 13 members of a drug ring who used airplanes to go from Las Vegas to Albany to transport cocaine and other drugs, were indicted on 65 counts of crimes, misdemeanors and felonies, were released from jail.
* Basically, every drug dealer in the state who gets arrested gets released without bail except for major drug traffickers like El Chapo.
"We can disagree on many things. But we can all agree this is not a sane criminal justice policy," Nicollello said.
The next day, members of the Long Island/New York Metro area Parents and Other Survivors of Murdered Victims rallied in Hauppauge against the new bail reform law. "We are basically here fighting because we don't want any new members," one survivor told Newsday.
By Friday, the national organization of Mothers Against Drunk Driving issued a news release calling for the immediate repeal of the bail reform law, citing an accident that killed a young man on Long Island. The alleged drunk driver, a repeat offender, had been released just days before the fatal crash and was released again a day after it.
On Monday, Jan. 20, state senate Republican spokeswoman Candice Giove tweeted a CBS6 Albany story about an upstate man arrested for allegedly choking a woman while she held a five-month old baby only to be released and rearrested an hour later.
The next day, Siena Research released its poll about downstate opposition to bail reform.
By then, Long Island Democrats realized the new law was a problem.
Also yesterday, Democratic Nassau County Executive Laura Curran held a news conference to announce a new coalition of law enforcement officials to make "common sense" recommendations to amend the new criminal justice laws.
Long Island Democrats also have said they want changes to the law. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the same thing yesterday. But New York City Democrats remain firmly against any amendments. No changes have actually moved forward.
Today, Giove tweeted three more stories from across the state about arrested offenders being released, including an article from the Times Herald Record about a man arrested in a domestic dispute that sent a police officer to the hospital. only to be released and arrested again 20 minutes later.
Three weeks later, Long Island Democrats are getting clobbered in the polls.
Yesterday, Jan. 21, the Siena College Research Institute released a poll that showed 64 percent of downstate suburbanites -- ie Long Islanders -- were opposed to bail reform. That was a significant swing from last year when a majority of voters -- 55 percent -- across the state thought bail reform would be good for New York.
All of Long Island's Democratic senators and assembly members joined with the new progressive Democratic majority in Albany last year to eliminate bail for most crimes in the state. All of Long Island's Republicans in Albany voted against it.
The move made sense on paper. Poor people accused of low-level crimes, such as shoplifting, should not stay in jail because they, or their relatives, cannot afford to post bail. Bail is supposed to ensure that suspects return to court when their case is heard.
But Albany Democrats took it too far.
Since Jan. 1, under the new law, judges have been forced to release suspects, even those accused of violent crimes, only to see them go out and commit another crime...in one case, 20 minutes after leaving court.
The Siena poll sampled voters between Jan. 11 and Jan. 16, just two weeks after bail reform took effect.
Generally it takes three weeks for the public to become aware of an issue.
That means, by now, even more people oppose bail reform.
Here are some reasons.
Nassau Presiding Officer Rich Nicolello, a Republican from New Hyde Park, listed some results from bail reform during his Jan. 13 induction speech. According to a video of the event, Nicolello said:
*In Nassau County, we had high-level felony drug dealers who were held on hundreds of thousands of dollars in bail released.
*A suspect accused of aggravated assault on a child less than 11 years old released.
*Several residential burglars, one of whom burglarized a house with intent to commit a sex crime, released.
*One suspect charged with four burglaries in Westbury was released and arrested within two days for another burglary in Carle Place.
*We have at least 61 known gang members released in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
*In Brooklyn, a woman charged with punching and cursing three Orthodox women in Crown Heights was released and then rearrested the next day when she assaulted another woman.
*In Syracuse, a man accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend, charged with second degree
manslaughter, was released without bail.
*In New York, a serial bank robber was released from jail and then promptly went out and robbed another bank.
* Basically, every drug dealer in the state who gets arrested gets released without bail except for major drug traffickers like El Chapo.
"We can disagree on many things. But we can all agree this is not a sane criminal justice policy," Nicollello said.
The next day, members of the Long Island/New York Metro area Parents and Other Survivors of Murdered Victims rallied in Hauppauge against the new bail reform law. "We are basically here fighting because we don't want any new members," one survivor told Newsday.
By Friday, the national organization of Mothers Against Drunk Driving issued a news release calling for the immediate repeal of the bail reform law, citing an accident that killed a young man on Long Island. The alleged drunk driver, a repeat offender, had been released just days before the fatal crash and was released again a day after it.
On Monday, Jan. 20, state senate Republican spokeswoman Candice Giove tweeted a CBS6 Albany story about an upstate man arrested for allegedly choking a woman while she held a five-month old baby only to be released and rearrested an hour later.
The next day, Siena Research released its poll about downstate opposition to bail reform.
By then, Long Island Democrats realized the new law was a problem.
Also yesterday, Democratic Nassau County Executive Laura Curran held a news conference to announce a new coalition of law enforcement officials to make "common sense" recommendations to amend the new criminal justice laws.
Long Island Democrats also have said they want changes to the law. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the same thing yesterday. But New York City Democrats remain firmly against any amendments. No changes have actually moved forward.
Today, Giove tweeted three more stories from across the state about arrested offenders being released, including an article from the Times Herald Record about a man arrested in a domestic dispute that sent a police officer to the hospital. only to be released and arrested again 20 minutes later.
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