Andrew Cuomo as governor signed off on “reforms” that sent crime soaring, and now he’s giving New Yorkers fair warning: He still stands by them, because the no-bail law “righted a terrible wrong.”
Translation: If you want to see perps locked up, don’t count on Cuomo.
“We were putting people in Rikers, in jail, who hadn’t been found guilty of anything just because they couldn’t make bail,” Cuomo claimed Sunday.
Wealthy defendants could make bail and get released, he argued, while others, who couldn’t, remained locked up.
False: Judges always took a person’s wealth into consideration when setting bail; poorer defendants faced lower amounts.
That made sense because bail is meant to ensure a defendant shows up for trial if released, and a small bail amount isn’t likely to stop the wealthy from fleeing.
Bail kept recidivists, career criminals and violent thugs off the streets until they could be tried, convicted and kept away from civil society.
Yet Cuomo’s bail reform completely eliminated the requirement to post bail for most crimes; only perps accused of the most heinous atrocities now have to come up with cash. Everyone else gets a get-out-of-jail-free card.
The result: Criminals are back on the streets even before cops complete their arrest paperwork.
Set-’em-loose judges (like those The Post highlighted Sunday) and prosecutors who vow not to prosecute (looking at you, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg) made matters even worse.
Sure enough, crime rates soared: Murders shot up 47% — from 319 in 2019 to 468 in 2020, when the reform kicked in.
The NYPD’s made some gains since, but they were still 20% higher last year; felonies in general were up 30%; misdemeanors, 18%.
Meanwhile, stores (that haven’t shut down) now routinely lock up merchandise — even toothpaste — for fear of theft.
It’s no coincidence: Perps got the messages there’d be no consequences for their crimes, and so went to town.
Indeed, the reform’s disastrous impact was so obvious that even the progressive-dominated state Legislature agreed to revise it — three times.
Yet it still remains broken.
Fine, as Cuomo notes, judges have regained a bit of discretion in some cases. But they can’t even consider a perp’s “dangerousness” in setting bail.
And most crimes remain bail-ineligible.
Other “reforms” Cuomo pushed through, like Raise the Age, also fuel crime.
Cuomo’s answer is to hire 5,000 more cops.
That’ll help, but where will he find 5,000 quality, willing new hires when every criminal is freed 10 minutes being arrested?
Cuomo has flip-flopped on other banes he embraced as governor, such as congestion pricing.
Why not bail reform too? Does he think it’ll just be too hard to get the Legislature to truly fix it, or is he already trying to appease the left?
Whatever: For a guy whose campaign is all about how he knows how to lead, it sure looks awful cowardly.
