Progressive reforms shouldn’t send us backward
Southbury, Conn.: I would like to compliment Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on his trenchant analysis regarding the current crime wave in New York (“From one top cop to the next,” op-ed, Dec. 26). It was fact-based and strongly statistically supported. He concluded by saying that the first step is to metaphorically put the shovel down. In deciphering some of the contributory factors to the surge in murders, violence and mayhem on the streets of New York, he calls it like he sees it. According to Shea, the sweeping changes to the legal system enacted by the Legislature, ostensibly to redress inequities in the system that disproportionately affect minorities, set the stage for a surge in crime. Bail reforms dictated that only defendants charged with a narrow range of offenses could be detained before trial, and for bail-eligible crimes, judges had to limit the amount based on the defendant’s ability to pay. A defendant’s history of violence, usually a good predictor of future violence, could not be considered by the judge. These mollycoddling reforms enabled and emboldened the criminally oriented as the punishments for misdeeds were becoming less punitive.
The most frightening and disturbing statistic from Shea’s analysis was that someone arrested for a shooting or a gun homicide had, on average, been previously arrested eight times. More than 80% of people arrested for illegal gun possession are not in custody. The prevailing progressive ideology is definitely not going to cause a regression in the criminal proclivities of recidivists. Shea is right: It’s time to put the shovel down as the hole keeps getting deeper.