2ND CHANCE TO KILL Mayor: B’klyn DA’s jail diversion program soft on guns
A popular alternative-toprison program is giving offenders in Brooklyn a genuine second chance — to commit more gun crimes and put the public at risk, the mayor and his top cops said Monday.
New crime stats show that 35% of the city’s total number of gun arrests through the first six months of the year occurred in four precincts in northern Brooklyn, and the district attorney’s diversion program isn’t helping.
“The men and women of the Police Department put their lives on the line to get these guns off the streets. It’s supposed to mean something,” Mayor de Blasio said at a news conference.
“We should not confuse the goal of diversion, which for nonviolent offenses is a valid tool. It’s allowed us to reduce our jail population and help people get back on the right track.
“But when a gun is involved in the equation, it’s a whole different ballgame. When there’s a gun there should be follow-through by prosecutors, and depending on how serious the incident is there should be serious consequences. We need that because the more we can disrupt the presence of guns on the street the more we can drive down crime,” he said.
According to NYPD officials, the average sentence for a gun arrest in Brooklyn is 327 days, the lowest of the city’s five boroughs.
The Brooklyn district attorney’s office runs an alternative-to-incarceration program for guilty-pleading offenders facing a first-time felony charge, including gun possession. The charges can be sealed if the accused completes the program.
Officials said that just last month, four people who avoided jail through the second-chance diversion program were rearrested. Two were caught with guns. Another was arrested after a search warrant led to the discovery of ammunition where he was staying. A fourth suspect was arrested for throwing a bottle at a cop.
“We’re up in guns,” Chief of Department Terence Monahan said at the press conference. “We’re up in gun arrests. What we need is that after that gun arrest is made that that person stays in jail.”
A spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Oren Yaniv, said the problem is not with the diversion program, but with the number of unsolved shootings and homicides. Yaniv said 67% of Brooklyn’s shootings and homicides remain unsolved.
“Our diversion program provides a second chance to certain young offenders with no prior violent record who have been charged with possessing, but not using, a gun,” Yaniv said.
“It has been utilized by the Brooklyn DA’s office for over a decade, corresponding with a steady decline in shootings, which reached a historical low in 2017, the year with the most diversion admissions to date.”
Yaniv said that only 7% of diversion program “graduates” were convicted of a felony within three years,