Blaz again raps courts for surge in city crime
Mayor de Blasio again blasted the state court system Tuesday, insisting that a lag in criminal trials has led to an “absence of consequences” he says is emboldening New Yorkers to commit crime.
“We have got to address safety and health across the board. If criminals suffer no consequences, then there’s a safety problem,” said de Blasio during his morning briefing.
“There’s something strange — there’s almost like a suspension of belief going on here — that, somehow, the court system has created this fiction that they could be allowed not to function while everyone else has to function,” de Blasio said.
“I don’t buy it,” said the mayor. Court officials offered data they say disprove de Blasio’s narrative.
Judges have held 72,288 arraignment hearings since the beginning of the year, and have disposed of 91,260 crimes — including 5,728 felony cases, according to data provided by the state Office of Court Administration.
Since jury trials resumed in March, the city’s courthouses have hosted 45 felony trials, and almost 150 grand juries have been empaneled, the data show.
Those who work in New York City’s courthouses say poor conditions in the courthouses hinder their ability to handle cases — and complain that de Blasio’s gripes about them obscure his responsibility for the problems.
Dennis Quirk, the longtime president of the court officers union — no friend of state court officials, who recently suspended him for doxxing the state’s chief judge — noted that the unhealthy conditions of the 29 city-owned court buildings amid the COVID-19 pandemic aren’t a state government responsibility.
“The germs in the courthouses are unbelievable,” said Quirk. “There’s been no way to reopen the buildings totally, and the mayor’s responsible for this because he provides the buildings, and the buildings are not being cleaned properly, they’re not ventilated properly . ... They’re not state buildings, they’re all city buildings.”
When the Department of Citywide Administrative Services evaluated courthouse ventilation systems in October 2020, it found low levels of air filtration in almost all 500 of the city’s holding cells, where criminal suspects are packed tightly while awaiting court hearings.
Court employees and lawyers have complained that the holding cells’ conditions are ripe for COVID-19 transmission. But when the Daily News asked Tuesday what had been done to resolve the problems, city officials did not respond.
Tina Luongo, chief attorney of the Legal Aid Society, said public defenders have for months been asking city officials what they’re doing about the holding cell ventilation problems.
As de Blasio gave his briefing Tuesday, Luongo attended a rally calling on him to do something about the worsening conditions on Rikers Island, where nine prisoners have died so far this year.
“He just needs someone to blame as opposed to just leading and stepping in and actually being present . ... Because the mayor’s checked out,” Luongo said.