‘Read’ my lips, Adams
Actor LeVar Burton blasts library fund cuts, urges reversal
Actor LeVar Burton decried the Adams administration’s budget cuts to the city’s public library systems Tuesday and urged New Yorkers to sign a petition calling for the spending reductions to be reversed.
In a letter shared with the Daily News, the “Roots” and “Star Trek” actor warned the consequences would be dire if the city adopts Mayor Adams’ preliminary 2025 fiscal year budget plan, which contains a combined $58.3 million cut to the three library systems.
“These proposed cuts could have devastating impacts for New Yorkers, who have already lost access to seven-day service due to a previous round of budget cuts,” Burton wrote in the letter emailed to members of the New York Public Library, the city’s largest system, which serves Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx. “The cuts proposed for next year would lead to even further service reductions, including the loss of yet another open day at most libraries.”
Burton’s missive was capped off with a link to a petition calling for a reversal of the library cuts.
Adams has previously argued it’s necessary to cut spending on libraries and other services to offset costs incurred from the local migrant crisis.
He said earlier this month he hopes to undo some cuts as part of negotiations with the City Council that will continue through June, when the city must finalize its 2025 fiscal year budget. Council Democrats argue the city sits on enough tax revenue to avoid additional library cuts and have made reversing library spending reductions Adams already enacted last year a priority in this spring’s budget talks.
In response to Burton’s letter, Adams spokeswoman Liz
Garcia noted the mayor canceled a round of additional cuts to libraries set to take place this month. She wouldn’t say whether Adams is considering undoing previous cuts.
“We are still in the middle of budget discussions and will continue to prioritize how we can protect our libraries,” Garcia said.
Burton — who’s also known for hosting “Reading Rainbow,” a children’s show focused on encouraging kids to read — wrote in Tuesday’s letter that libraries played a large role in his upbringing.
“Growing up, some of my best childhood memories were in libraries,” he wrote. “From ‘Roots’ to ‘Star Trek’ to ‘Reading Rainbow,’ my love of reading and unimpeded pursuit of knowledge have been central to my life as well as my career.”
Burton is the latest celebrity to condemn Adams’ library cuts. Last month, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has otherwise been supportive of Adams politically, also called on him to back off the cuts.
Mayor Adams acknowledged knowing a prominent Brooklyn activist who sued several top NYPD officials Monday for allegedly circulating sensitive details and false information about a sexual assault she suffered in order to discredit her.
The mayor said Tuesday at City Hall he’s known the activist, Dana Rachlin (photo), since his “days in the state Senate” — 2007 to 2013 — and added he’s sure she would say how “forward-thinking” he was around criminal justice reform. But he declined to comment on Rachlin’s lawsuit.
Rachlin said in a statement Tuesday that she’s known the mayor for “several years” and that they crossed paths “frequently” prior to his time in City Hall. She said he once told her one cannot “lead from the pack.”
“We all deserve a city where stepping out of the pack to advocate for change and true community safety does not expose a person to the risk of retaliation and serious harm from the city’s most powerful people and institutions,” Rachlin said.
Her lawsuit alleges she had a close working relationship for years with top NYPD officials including now Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey. But after she began criticizing police tactics in Brownsville and other areas publicly and privately starting in 2020, police officials shunned her and barred her from precinct stationhouses, she says.
The suit alleges police brass also leaked details of her 2017 sexual assault report and claimed through back channels to elected officials and other community advocates she had made up the allegation.
Rachlin co-founded the nonprofit NYC Together with “The Wire” actor Michael K. Williams, has been a district leader in Greenpoint, is chair of the judiciary committee for the Brooklyn Democrats and has worked with anti-violence groups in Brownsville and other parts of the borough.
Pressed on his remarks, Adams noted he himself filed an EEO complaint when he was a cop about the behavior of some of the leadership. He also threw in a plug for Maddrey and other top police officials named in the suit, though not by name.
“That is the purpose of due process,” he said. “I know these officers — the individuals, the men and women you mentioned, have done an amazing job of driving down crime, keeping the city safe and doing it in a safe environment.”
In addition to Maddrey, the lawsuit names Chief of Patrol John Chell and Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry, current commissioner Edward Caban and two prior commissioners Keechant Sewell and Dermot Shea.
Adams’ top adviser Ingrid Lewis Martin said the lawsuit was “news to us” and that the allegations predate Adams’ time in City Hall.
Jennifer and James Crumbley, the first parents to be convicted of manslaughter in connection with a mass shooting carried out by their child, were sentenced Tuesday to spend 10 to 15 years in prison, respectively.
“These convictions are not about poor parenting,” Judge Cheryl Matthews said. “These convictions confirm repeated acts, or lack of acts, that could have halted an oncoming runaway train. About repeatedly ignoring things that would make a reasonable person feel the hair on the back of their neck stand up.”
“Opportunity knocked over and over again — louder and louder — and was ignored,” Matthews added. “No one answered.”
The Crumbleys, who have been behind bars since their arrest more than two years ago, will receive credit for the 858 days they’ve already spent behind bars, and will be eligible for parole in 10 years. Their defense attorneys had requested they be spared prison time after separate juries found each of them guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year.
The charges stemmed from a shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford, Mich., where their son Ethan had been a student.
He was just 15 years old when he opened fire on classmates and teachers on the afternoon of Nov. 30, 2021, killing Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; and Justin Shilling, 17.
During victim-impact statements delivered Tuesday morning, Craig Shilling, Justin Shilling’s father, said he lives every day with “pain, anger, heartache, regret, anxiety, stress, you name it. They’re all there wreaking havoc in my once normal life.”
He then told the Crumbleys, “The blood of our children is on your hands.”
The teen’s mother, Jill Soave, echoed the sentiment, calling the violence “completely preventable.”
“If only they had done something, Your Honor, anything, to shift the course events on Nov. 30 [2021], then our four angels would be here today,” she concluded.
Both Crumbleys offered their condolences to the victims’ loved ones and for the carnage carried out at Oxford HS. Jennifer said she would be in her “own internal prison for the rest” of her life, while her husband said that his “heart is really broken for everybody involved.”
Their apologies fell on uninterested ears, however. Steve St. Juliana, the father of Hana St. Juliana, told the court the “defendants through their choices, through their indifference and gross negligence, enabled their son to murder my daughter Hana and three other children.”
Prosecutors similarly waved off the apologies on Tuesday, emphasizing that “tragically simple actions” by both parents could have stopped the catastrophe.
Just hours before the shooting, Ethan’s parents were called in to the school for a meeting with counselors about violent writings and doodles scrawled between the math problems on his homework. One of his teachers spotted the drawings — which included a handgun, a bullet and a person seemingly lying in a pool of his own blood — and snapped a photo to show to administrators.
Even after seeing the doodles, Ethan’s parents declined to take him home for the day. They also did not mention the 9-mm. semiautomatic handgun James Crumbley purchased for his son days earlier on Black Friday as a Christmas gift, nor how his mother took him to the shooting range for a test run.
While neither parent was accused of helping Ethan plan the brutal attack, prosecutors have argued they could’ve taken steps to help prevent it, including ensuring the new firearm was secure and in a safe location.
They also contended the Crumbleys ignored warning signs and clear indications that their son could become violent. They pointed to messages the teen exchanged with his mom months before the carnage, saying he saw a demon in their house and clothes flying around the room. He also told a friend he had “paranoia” and was hearing voices.
During Ethan’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors presented a 22-page journal as further evidence of his deteriorating state of mind in the leadup to the massacre. The teen wrote that he planned to target “pretty” girls while he carried out “the largest school shooting in the state.”
Another journal entry read: “I have zero HELP for my mental problems and it’s causing me to shoot up” the school.
Ethan Crumbley, who is now 17, pleaded guilty in October 2022 to two dozen charges in connection with the shooting, including terrorism and murder. He is currently serving a life sentence.