‘Free’-for-all fury on crime
Blaz foe: Releases put city in danger
REPUBLICAN mayoral candidate Nicole Malliotakis ripped Mayor de Blasio’s supervised-release program, saying it is cutting loose potentially dangerous suspects.
“We’re letting too many people who are a threat to public safety walk the streets,” Malliotakis, a Staten Island assemblywoman and the presumptive GOP nominee for mayor, said Sunday on the John Catsimatidis AM 970 radio show.
The supervised-release program allows defendants deemed low-risk to stay out of jail while awaiting trial. Instead, they get regular visits from social workers. It has diverted at least 3,800 people from jail since its launch last year and is set to expand as part of the push to cut the population and eventually close Rikers Island.
Malliotakis slammed the supervised release of Derrick Gadson, who is accused of threatening to kill a nun praying in a Brooklyn church. Prosecutors had asked for $25,000 bail but Justice Loren Baily-Schiffman placed him in the mayor’s program.
The same judge released a man without bail who was charged with trying to snatch a police officer’s gun. That case was not part of the supervised-release program.
“If an individual threatens to kill somebody else or themselves, that’s inappropriate to be releasing them back into the public. And unfortunately I believe there are many flaws in the mayor’s program. It needs to be reviewed and tightened up,” Malliotakis said.
In another case reported by the Daily News, a man with more than a dozen prior arrests, who was accused of beating a Parks Department employee, was freed without bail under the supervised-release program.
Malliotakis also sought to tie the mayor to the release of Jose Gonzalez, who weeks later was charged with killing EMT Yadira Arroyo, noting the judge who made the decision, David Kirschner, was appointed by de Blasio.
Gonzalez, who had a lengthy rap sheet, was not placed in supervised release.
“He was released. And that allowed him to do the crime that he did weeks later and kill one of the EMT workers,” she said.
The mayoral hopeful also criticized a decision by four of the city’s district attorneys to dismiss 700,000 decade-old warrants for minor crimes.
“We do need to enforce broken windows. It’s the reason why we see the quality of life deteriorating with public urination and littering and other things,” she said.
De Blasio’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.