We see obviously deranged people roaming the streets of New York, all too often ranting to themselves or to the world at large, every day.
On Monday, one of them snapped, and now three innocents are dead in his stabbing spree.
How many more times does this have to happen?
Ramon Rivera, despite glaring mental health issues and at least eight arrests in New York and a criminal history crossing multiple states, got sprung early from Rikers this year after doing time for multiple burglaries and assaults.
Failure No. 1.
Then, the very day of his release, Rivera stole a $1,500 bowl from a fancy home goods store downtown; Manhattan prosecutors wanted bail, but a judge let him out on non-monetary conditions.
Failure No. 2. And the critical one.
How — how! — can it be than even after the massive screwup that saw Rivera walk from Rikers, even after his same-day arrest, that a man with a record like his and mental health problems can be let free?
He has arrests for domestic violence and other crimes in Florida going back to 2003. Assault in Cleveland in 2017. Burglary in New Jersey in January.
In May, Rivera spent time in the Bellevue psych ward, where he assaulted a correction officer.
How many red flags can one individual possibly wave?
City government can’t or won’t get people whose mental illness poses obvious dangers off the street.
Add in the perennial dysfunction at Rikers and the pro-crime bail policies put in place by progressives in 2019, and the bodies keep piling up.
Three of them this time, though Rivera’s alleged spree might have continued if a few civilians hadn’t acted after his third attack.
It’s clear to any rational mind that Rivera should have been in a mental institution.
And that assuming that first disastrous error, as soon as he was picked up for anything else — let alone on the same day — he should have been sent back either to prison or an institution.
New York needs full-scale change to rebuild public safety, thanks to the crime- and disorder-loving leftists and the Democratic uniparty that enables them in Gotham and Albany.
Absent that, the carnage will only continue.
