Ex-Gov. David Paterson says it’s “really annoying’’ how New York’s laws have become too lenient on “coddled” juvenile defenders — after he and his stepson were recently attacked by vicious youths on a city street.
“We have overcompensated for what used to happen to youth offenders,” Paterson said on 770 WABC radio Sunday, referring to historic abuses of juveniles in youth detention facilities.
“The pendulum has now swung the other way to the point that the criminal-justice system is treating these kids who start these fights as if they should be coddled,” said the former gov, who is 70 and legally blind.
“It’s really annoying,” he told John Catsimatidis, host of the “Cats Roundtable.”
Paterson and his stepson, Anthony Sliwa, 20, were beaten by a rowdy brat pack and two city Housing
Authority workers while walking the family’s dog on an Upper East Side sidewalk Oct. 4, authorities and the pair have said.
The beef started when Sliwa, the son of Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, chastised a group of youngsters who were climbing on a fire escape — and the young brats later returned with the city housing workers to confront him and his stepdad.
Paterson said he was stunned when he saw the full surveillance video of the melee, indicating that it was worse that he even remembered it.
He suggested he might have temporarily blacked out during the assault.
“Apparently, when I thought the incident was over, one of the participants sucker-punched me by running up from my back and punching me right in the head. I fell over and was lying on the ground, and I have no memory of that,” said Paterson, who was governor from 2007 to 2010.
Paterson previously told The Post that he believed the two Housing Authority workers provoked the attack against him and Anthony — and said the video backs his claim.
“They said they inserted themselves to try to stabilize the situation. Well, you wouldn’t know it if you watch that video,” he said.
The NYPD last week busted Housing workers Trevor Nurse, 40, and Diamond Minter, 34, and charged them with second-degree assault in the cowardly attack.
Three youngsters, 12 and 13 years old, turned themselves in to police over the assault and were charged with second-degree assault, while a third boy who surrendered was released without charges after cops determined he didn’t take part.
Paterson, during the Post interview last week, said the prosecutors and judge should throw the book at the two adults and that they should “rot in hell.”
Footage seemingly shot through a McDonald’s window shows about a half-dozen assailants kicking and punching a bloodied and defenseless Anthony while he is on the ground as Paterson tries to pull them away.
Paterson said he was slugged by one youngster and punched him back.
“I threw him into the window of McDonald’s, [and] I hit him again,” the Democratic pol said at the time. “The adults escalated the situation. The adults can rot in hell as far as I’m concerned.”
