Albany Democrats say criminal justice reform facts be damned

To comply with false-advertising laws, Albany should find a new word to describe what it now calls a legislative “hearing.” 

The need grows out of an extraordinary recent event at the state Capitol. Invited to address a Senate hearing on criminal justice, Albany County District Attorney David Soares was subsequently disinvited. 

He was canceled because of what he intended to say, proving that the Empire State’s government operates on the same kangaroo court principles of most college campuses. If you don’t want to hear what someone has to say, you are free to silence them lest you be offended. 

Soares’ sin was straight talk in that he aimed to tell lawmakers they made fatal mistakes in their so-called reforms of bail and other crime laws. He wanted to clear the air of radical nonsense about who was being detained under the former system and say that suspects who should have been held pending trial were now being set free and were committing additional violent crimes in extraordinary numbers. He also promised to bring statistics to prove his points.

Most inflammatory of all, he would show that the very people lawmakers aimed to help, poor black and Latino New Yorkers, suffered the most as a result of the changes.

All this was too much to bear. No, no, no, the facts be damned, said the far-left Dems who control both houses of the Legislature. Rather than even politely hear out the experienced prosecutor, who happens to be black, and challenge his points, they tried to eliminate his message by shooting the messenger. Soares reportedly got a phone call late the night before he was to testify, telling him not to bother. 

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‘Absolutely false’

As a compromise, his written remarks were entered into the record, and even that set off fireworks. Statements like this one had legislators’ heads exploding:

“The perception that many people were being held on minor charges on low bail amounts was absolutely false.” 

And this one: “These reforms have had their most devastating impact on black and brown communities. If you take an honest look at the data — the increases in crime, the victims of those crimes, and the location of the most violent crimes, the connection is quite clear.”

An honest look at the data is not something the Legislature will do, not when the data disprove their crackpot theories. Their story is that the criminal justice system is totally corrupted by racism, and they’re not about to let the facts — or the bloodshed — get in the way.

This is what passes for a “hearing” among the Dems of Albany. Because they are not actual gatherings where facts are presented and laws debated, they need a new name. 

I humbly suggest we call them what they are — performances — where favorite myths are endlessly repeated for the comfort of the deluded and the deceitful. 

Fortunately, we know about the disgraceful treatment Soares got because Hannah E. Meyers, director of policing and public safety at the Manhattan Institute, first wrote about the fiasco under the provocative headline, “Do Black Victims Matter?”

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The Post followed by running Soares’ written remarks Monday, noting they show what has gone wrong in Albany and asking if lawmakers will do anything about it. 

The answer seems to be, “Absolutely not.” Which raises another question: Where in the hell is Gov. Kathy Hochul? 

Once again, she’s MIA.

As even former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted, the refusal of state Dems to grasp the crime issue nearly cost Hochul her job in last year’s election and helped the GOP pick up enough House seats in New York to win a national majority. Yet here we are, four months later, and the blinders remain firmly fixed in place. 

What are we waiting for?

Hochul’s absence from the crime fight is especially grating. She says repeatedly that “public safety is my top priority,” but where’s the beef? 

Now that Soares has presented crystal-clear data showing that recidivism is through the roof and that teenagers are committing more violent crimes since Albany moved most cases for those under 18 to Family Court, the path forward is clear. So what is the governor waiting for?

With budget negotiations about to begin, Hochul should say no to all legislative spending until she gets true criminal justice reform.

The ugly truth is that state Dems have foolishly put themselves in a box of their own making. New York has long been too soft on crime, but the progressive wing made big inroads in Albany even before the George Floyd murder and the “Defund the police” insanity that followed the 2020 riots.

It was in late 2019, as David Soares reminds us, that judges started a “soft opening” of the jails and freeing inmates in anticipation of the lenient bail law taking effect on Jan. 1, 2020. He notes that in the 75 days or so before COVID hit in the middle of March and long before the Floyd summer riots, crime in the city suddenly shot up 20%, a rise not seen in 27 years. 

“If you deny that the release of hundreds of car thieves, burglars, drug dealers and petty thieves had an obvious impact on crime in New York, you’re denying common sense,” he wrote in his testimony.

But that’s exactly what we are witnessing — a wholesale denial of obvious facts. And a refusal to realize that crime remains the No. 1 issue driving people out of New York, making the state America’s leader in population loss. 

All of which leads me to ask two other questions of Albany Dems: How do you sleep at night? And what lies do you tell yourselves to justify the slaughter and destruction your policies have unleashed? 

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Lessons on tantrums

My column on the editors of the New York Times facing boorish attacks by transgender activists, including some of their own reporters, leads John Busacca to offer parental advice. He writes:

“When our kids were young and threw tantrums in stores because they wanted candy or soda, we soon learned that if you give in, the same thing will happen again and again. So one time I walked away from my child doing this and he was so enraged he got up, followed me down an aisle and tried again. After about 5 minutes, he stopped and never did it again.”

He adds: “The radical left is a 4-year-old throwing a tantrum and the media keep giving it candy time and again.”

Sack the hacks

Martin Carus advises the paper’s editors how to treat the staff rebels specifically, writing: “If the Times is smart, it hands out pink slips ASAP. There are plenty of available replacements!”

Easy appeasey

Reader James Dalton hears history’s appeasement footsteps, writing: “Why do I think that the irony was lost on this administration as well as the supine media when the first face to face meeting with the Chinese after the Biden administration’s feckless balloon caper was held in … Munich?”