(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Governor Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., and Democrat lawmakers are pushing to overhaul some of the leftist criminal justice reforms that they themselves championed and passed when they won super-majorities in the state legislature in 2019.
Leftist lawmakers changed state bail laws and forced prosecutors to hand over crime documents to defense attorneys in a more expeditious manner. Less than four years later, the state courts, local prosecutors and law enforcement are struggling to keep the city safe because of a skyrocketing surge in violent crime.
One of the proposed changes would allow state judges to detain certain indicted individuals on bail and the other would limit defense attorneys from requesting case materials from prosecutors. Both laws have been criticized as causes of the crime surge in the state, reported the New York Times.
“The changes are a testament to the shift in sentiment on crime, as well as years of resistance to the laws from Republicans, moderate Democrats and law enforcement officials,” the NYT reported.
“We need to listen to our voters, we need to listen to our constituents, and our constituents are not feeling safe,” said State Senator Monica R. Martinez, a Democrat who had lost her seat to a Republican in 2020, only regaining it in 2022, the Times reported. Martinez’s comment was a sharp contrast to Democrats a few years ago.
“We seized the moment,” then-Governor Andrew Cuomo championed in 2019 when leftist Democrats transformed state laws into a wish list of leftist policies, including weakening rent laws, strengthening environmental laws, issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants and limiting cash bail. The new cash bail law effectively allowed arrested criminals to walk away from prison.
The momentum did not last long. Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace after being accused of sexual harassment in 2021, reversed his support of leftist policies and slammed New York Democrats for being soft on crime and harming American citizens.
“Democrats: When you ignore crime, you hurt the people you represent,” Cuomo said in an April 13 tweet. “The far left doesn’t want to talk about crime — they don’t want to hear the word crime spoken. ‘There is no crime problem, it’s all Republican propaganda,’” the former governor later said on a podcast.
Cuomo’s sentiment was echoed by Hochul, who succeeded him after the infamous resignation. Hochul faced a tremulous election campaign against Republican nominee Lee Zeldin. Anti-crime New Yorkers shifted to the Republican Party, making Hochul’s 2022 election the closest gubernatorial race in 30 years. Several state lawmakers lost their seats because of the historic election. Democrats paid attention.
“I’m looking to restore people’s confidence in our system and part of that has to do with fixing some of the bail laws,” Hochul told reporters last week after meeting with lawmakers to discuss the state’s budget.
New York crime has seen an increase in crime in recent years, with the New York Post reporting that New York City faced a record level of felony crimes in 2022, the highest in over 15 years.
The surge in New York City crime also grabbed national attention after the Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged former President Donald Trump with felony crimes over alleged falsified business records.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., ripped New York Democrats and Bragg over their failures to protect the city in a famed field hearing held in New York City.
