New York Post

Stop Springing Sickos

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Demetrius Harvard was reportedly “smiling” as that Manhattan A-train flew off the rails Sunday morning, sideswipin­g at least 10 steel beams and tearing a huge chunk of metal off one car. It was another failure of the systems that are supposed to protect New Yorkers from sickos.

Harvard is accused of tossing metal constructi­on debris onto the tracks at the West 14th station as the train pulled into the station. The derailment did nearly $1 million in damage, the MTA says. Luckily, only three people were injured — none killed.

So on Monday night, he was held in lieu of $50,000 cash bail at his arraignmen­t in Manhattan Criminal Court. He was charged with assault, criminal tampering, reckless endangerme­nt, criminal mischief and unlawful interferen­ce with a railroad train.

But he should’ve already been in custody: He was arraigned earlier in the month on one count of misdemeano­r criminal mischief for allegedly striking an MTA bus with a metal street barricade and shattering two windows.

Manhattan prosecutor­s didn’t ask for bail then, and Harvard was granted supervised release — even though he already had an open bench warrant for failing to show up to court on a March 2019 case for threatenin­g two staffers at a Boost store.

New Yorkers need criminal-justice and mental-health systems that protect the public from such threats, whether the perps are demented or just vicious. Yet state and city laws increasing­ly push for their release, even after they’ve repeatedly proven dangerous.

It’s a recipe for punishing the innocent.

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