New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) said he was on board with stiffening penalties for assaults on retail workers, even as he insisted he doesn’t believe the measure deters crime.
Heastie — who has sparked outrage for his refusal to crack down on violent shoplifters — finally agreed to increase criminal penalties on thugs who attack retail workers after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that a provision was being included in the state budget.
“There’s a larger situation at play here. People feel like they want a stiffer penalty for an action that has been taken, fine,” Heastie told reporters Tuesday.
The reversal comes as Heastie, and lawmakers in general, are facing pressure to react to a rise in increasing violent crime.
Heastie, who was instrumental in pushing for changes to the state’s bail laws in 2019, told reporters earlier this year that changes to criminal penalties were not on the table for budget talks.
Heastie reiterated his long-held stance that increasing criminal penalties will not alone deter crime.
“I’m more about deterring a crime than reacting to crime after it’s been committed,” Heastie said. “I’d hope that one day we can be a world that tries to stop crime and not just continues to concentrate on what happens after it’s committed.”
The Bronx pol said he believes other parts of the package, particularly a new tax credit allowing small retailers to be reimbursed for upgrading security equipment, will help shopowners grapple with an ongoing wave of larcenies.
Per conversations with those familiar with the talks as well as the Governor’s Monday announcement, the retail theft package is expected to include:
-Increased penalties for assaulting a retail worker
-A tax credit to assist bodegas and other small retail locations to upgrade security technology
-Allowing authorities to combine the value of goods stolen between different stores to make heftier charges
-$40 million in funding to help state police and local district attorneys target organized retail theft rings
“I insisted that I would increase penalties for anyone who assaults a retail worker. We got it done,” Hochul bragged Monday.
Retail workers have slammed Heastie for his past comments on retail assaults. Republican lawmakers held press conferences in recent weeks to drag the speaker’s lack of action on crime.
