DA:Too soon to tie bail fix to crime wave

Give the state’s bail reform laws some time, Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez urged Wednesday — and he added that it’s “way too soon” to blame January’s crime spike on the law that frees more criminal suspects awaiting trial.

“I think one month is way too soon, or two months is too soon, to see whether or not there’s going to be more violence due to bail reform,” Gonzalez said at a news conference.

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea has linked January’s crime spike to the new law, which eliminated bail for more than 450 crimes, including more than 250 felonies.

Gonzalez said he agrees with Shea that to tackle issues that might arise from the new laws, judges should be given discretion to lock up potentially violent offenders.

“I think giving judges discretion to make decisions is an important step. Without that, we’ve handicapped our judiciary,” Gonzalez said Wednesday.

He argued that New York should get rid of cash bail and use a system similar to New Jersey’s, where judges can factor in a person’s age, criminal record and the nature of the arrest when determining whether or not to release them pretrial.

Citywide, major crimes were up about 17% in January compared with the same period last year, though murders are down 20%, and rapes are down 18%.

Some 143 suspects released after being charged with nonbail eligible crimes ended up charged 230 times with new offenses between Jan 1 and Jan. 28, according to NYPD data. Five of those have five or more rearrests already.

A former assistant commissioner in the NYPD, Robert Gonzalez, said that city agencies should wait before condemning the new bail laws.

“Like stop and frisk, it was speculated that crime would skyrocket if the the practice was discontinued, but crime continued to drop to historic lows,” said Gonzalez, a criminal justice professor at St. John’s University.

“Let’s remember why the reforms were developed in the first place and give it some time before we give it a complete thumbs-down,” said Gonzalez, who is not related to the district attorney.