Blas’ Double-Standard: Protecting Disgraced Ponte
Will the correction commissioner keep his job (“Get Out of Jail!” May 11)?
Joseph Ponte told reporters he’ll “probably talk about that in the next few weeks.”
That just means he’s waiting it out, hoping his scandal blows over or is put in the shade by yet another outrage from the morality-free de Blasio administration. Bill Marsano Manhattan
Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it. Someone should have told Ponte that some of the lost souls on Rikers Island are there because of ignorance of the law.
It is curious that de Blasio, who sees himself as the champion of the underclass, does a punt on Ponte’s elitist and rulebreaking behavior like that of a spoiled child.
Does the word “integrity” mean anything to the mayor? Gary Schwartz Fort Lee, NJ
I can’t believe the cavalier attitude of our incompetent mayor.
The correction commissioner took advantage of his position, using city cars for his personal use.
He was hired to fix Rikers Island prison, which is a frightening mess. Has it even begun to improve? Will it ever?
Ponte is not the only person in a high-salaried position to be indifferent to his work. Unfortunately, we see it too often. There’s an old familiar saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” B. Abraham Manhattan
Ponte used his cityowned vehicle to log 18,500 miles out of state over 90 days, mostly to his home state of Maine. But de Blasio says “he thought he was doing the right thing. He never intended to do anything wrong.”
FBI Director James Comey once also called Hillary Clinton’s use of her personal server “reckless,” but didn’t recommend prosecution because she didn’t intend to do anything wrong. How convenient. What happened to “ignorance of the law is no excuse”? Manny Martin Manhattan
Ponte’s travel junkets to Maine on the city’s dime remind me of the AWOL antics of former Police Commissioner Lee Brown, dubbed “Out-of-Town Brown.”
That Ponte hasn’t even read the Lippman report on reforming Rikers proves that he’s a woefully disengaged commissioner.
But Ponte won’t even be getting a slap on the wrist from de Blasio for all his buck-passing excuses — just a nice pat on the head for his pointyheaded experiments at fixing Rikers. James Hyland Beechhurst