NYPD BAIL REFORMS

 

TomDispatch

 

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Very cute. The Trump admin is colluding with the NYPD to blame violent crime on recent bail reforms.

—Erika

Gun violence has skyrocketed in Brooklyn, and state bail reforms won't keep dangerous criminals behind bars, so the NYPD is partnering with the FBI to prosecute shooters in federal court—avoiding the state system entirely—in order to keep New Yorkers safe.

That's the thrust of a recent report on NY1, which details the rise of shootings in Brownsville's 73rd Precinct, which has seen 19 murders and 86 shooting victims through Labor Day this year, up from 11 murders and 44 victims in 2019.

“We’ve had Operation Safe Streets, which is a task force between the NYPD and FBI where we are bringing up federal charges on a selected few who are committing these shootings,” Deputy Inspector Terrell Anderson, the head of the 73rd Precinct, told the outlet. “They are actually working hand in hand with us. They are in the precincts every day and looking at these arrests as they come in."

Lieutenant Barbara Fischer, who leads the detectives in the 73rd, added, “The bail problem, we lock somebody up and they’re out hours after, while we’re not even done with the paperwork. think that’s very troubling."

After the program aired, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea came on NY1 to hammer home the connection between bail reforms and gun violence.

"It's frustrating. I can tell you from our point of view, that revolving door, that's the piece that's really not spoken about enough," Shea said. "We need dangerous people off the street."

Yet the NYPD's own data does not link bail reform to the increase in violent crime across New York City. An analysis issued earlier this summer by the Center for Court Innovation stated that it was "spurious to link aggregate crime trends in early 2020 to the new bail law," which went into effect at the beginning of the year and were modified in July after law enforcement groups, including the NYPD, lobbied the state legislature.

Another puzzling aspect to the NYPD's assertions that bail reform is causing gun violence: these crimes are considered violent felonies, and are clearly bail eligible.