In "Cities in Crisis" for Newsmax, I wrote "local governments appear powerless to cope with the problems … as the cities descend into the depth of lawlessness."
Looking just at New York City, can we see the perfect storm, a powerful concurrence of factors creating a disastrous situation resulting from the conscious actions of the politicians elected into office by the voters?
They called it "criminal justice reform" when they release drug traffickers from prison as "non-violent offenders."
According to Pew Research in 2017, over 97% of criminal dispositions resulted from plea bargains; the practice of negotiating a guilty plea for lighter sentence or dropping some more serious charges, like dropping the violent charges and pleading to the "non-violent charges."
They close the prisons transferring the offenders into borough prisons to be closer to the public.
Prison Legal New quotes New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo: "I'm going to go down in the history books as the governor who closed the most prisons in the history of the State of New York, and I'm proud of it." The Governor's January budget proposal reflects New York must "eliminate excess prison capacity in order to use scarce taxpayer dollars as efficiently and prudently as possible." Actions based solely on finances compromising the safety and security of the people.
In Oct 2019 the New York City Council approved building new borough prisons replacing the city central jail, Rikers Island. These "would only contain a total of 3,300 beds compared to a current population of roughly 7,200 inmates." Elias Husamudeen, president, Corrections Benevolent Association, questioned the publicized numbers: "I think the public should be very concerned that there won't be enough beds for inmates." Analysis by John Jay College of Criminal Justice shows at least 125,000 accused criminals are likely to be released from prison in New York City every year.
They passed a no-bail law releasing all "non-violent criminals" back on the street.
Talia Kaplan of Fox News reports, "Under the new law, courts are now prohibited from setting any monetary bail or keeping defendants in custody before trial in almost every type of misdemeanor case, and for a long list of felonies as well." Law Enforcement Today tells us these felonies include such non-violent crimes as: second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, promoting a sexual performance by a child and making terroristic threats!
They confined elderly with COVID-19 to nursing homes while releasing criminals from prison to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Suzy Khimm reports for NBC News that New York State mandated nursing homes accept recovering COVID-19 patients who might still be contagious, potentially spreading the virus in the facility. David Grabowski, professor of health policy at Harvard Medical School stated: "Nursing homes are working so hard to keep the virus out, and now we're going to be introducing new COVID-positive patients?" With news taht 21% of the COVID-19 deaths in New York occurred in nursing homes, Cuomo rescinded the mandate.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio quoted in the New York Post stated ,"I think it's unconscionable just on a human level that folks were shown mercy and this is what some of them have done," after 50 recently released prisoners due to the COVID-19 pandemic were rearrested for new crimes in recent weeks. The Post also informs us that this release dropped the prison population under 4,000, first time in over 70 years. Bringing the number closer to conforming to the 3,300 available bed policy in the new prison plan!
What could possibly go wrong?
Although New York City Health Department reports a drop of drug-related overdose deaths in 2018 at 1,444 from a high of 1,482 in 2017, that is still an over 80% increase from the 800 just four years before in 2014. WPIX News reported on Jun 26th, "Another bloody night in NYC: 11 people shot in under 12 hours across city" and a spike in gun violence of over 300% compared to 2019.
In "New York's Thickening Cloud of Violent Crime" Seth Barron wrote "elected officials keep making it easier for criminals to operate." He further observed "our leaders have seemingly surrendered the will to protect the communities."
Mayor de Blasio fantasizes "New York is the safest big city in the nation." While he cuts the police budget by almost 20%! What could possibly go wrong?
Not only the mayor and the governor, but also the State Senate, the State Assembly and the City Council created this perfect storm. Why do voters keep electing these politicians who neglect their fundamental duty to the people to "effect their safety and happiness?" in the Declaration of Independence?
Follow the New York model, continue voting for these politicians who betray the people, and this perfect storm could be "Coming to a neighborhood near you!"
The above is the opinion of the author and is not meant to reflect the opinion of the US Navy or the US Government.
John M. DeMaggio retired after 30 years of service as a Captain from the U.S. Naval Reserve Intelligence Program. He holds a Bachelor's of Science in Forensic Science from John Jay College and a Master's of Science from Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University. Privately consulting in counterterrorism, forensic science, and investigations, he also conducts international counterterrorism training, having retired as a Special Agent in Charge and serving as Co-chairman, Investigative Support and Forensic Subgroup, TSWG, developing interagency counterterrorism technology. He is also an op-ed contributor for The Hill. He previously published "Mitigation of Terrorist Effects on Victims' Motivation" in U.S. Army Counterinsurgency Center Colloquium. Read John M. DeMaggio's Reports — More Here.
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