Get tough on abuse
Aman can beat his girlfriend in New York and get the same sentence another man gets for turnstile-jumping. And if he hurts her 10, 20, 30 times, he’ll get the same penalty he did the first time — a mere misdemeanor.
Nowis the time to change that, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance told the Daily News Friday.
“Penalties for repeat domestic abusers do not adequately reflect the seriousness of these crimes,” Vance said.
“As a result of outdated New York State domestic violence laws, a serial abuser who hurts his victim for the 100th time can receive the same sentence he did for his first conviction — a maximum of one year in jail for an A misdemeanor, the same crime level as not paying a subway fare. That is not justice for victims.”
What’s more, the number of domestic violence homicide or murder victims is increasing. There were 92 lost lives last year, up from77 in 2010.
Need even more reasons? Here’s hundreds. The NYPD responds to 700 domestic violence calls, known to be the most dangerous to cops themselves, every single day in our city.
On Wednesday, Vance spoke to activists gathered in Albany at a N.Y. Coalition Against Domestic Violence conference. He said that cases like the 2009 murder of 19-year-old mother Glendalyz Pagan by her repeat abuser — her
CY VANCE JR. child’s father — could be prevented by the Aggravated Domestic Violence Bill [S. 1510], which Sen. Daniel Squadron launched in the Senate at Vance’s urging.
Squadron, a Democrat who reps the Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, neighborhood where NYPD Officer Alain Schaberger was fatally thrown over a railing by a 12-year repeat domestic violence abuser, dedicated the bill to the slain cop.
It’s time, Vance told the crowd, now that gov. Cuomo signed into law Monday the All Crimes DNA Collection Bill, which requires a DNA sample be taken from any criminal convicted of a felony or jail time misdemeanor.
“Its passage illustrates that powerful things can happen when those with similar interests come together and speak with a united voice,” Vance said.
Exactly. That’s why it’s so tragic — or will befor some woman or women out there — that the Aggravated Domestic Violence Bill to increase sentencing for repeat abusers, which passed the Assembly a year ago, was shelved by the state Senate Republicans last week.
“Senate Republicans are committed to increasing penalties for individuals who engage in repeat incidents of domestic violence,” Majority Leader Dean Skelos’ (R-nassau) spokesman Scott Reif told The News. “But the Democrats have put forward 300 bills, and it’s hard to know what their priorities are.
“Those bills have been moved to the Rules Committee. They have to be reviewed in an orderly, efficient, responsible way. We won’t allow Democrats to bring back dysfunction. It’s not so much the issue, it’s the process.”
Tell that to the next mother who gets her teeth knocked out by her husband in her own home— or worse.
More than one state Senate watcher told me that there are other domestic violence bills on the floor, and that Republicans simply don’t like to pass popular bills that are sponsored by Democrats — even when a Republican co-sponsor joins the effort, like Brooklyn Sen. Marty Golden did.
“There’s no reason to hold this up any longer,” Squadron told The news.
“This law would begin protecting victims and communities immediately. It would be shameful to let it remain in the legislative equivalent of a locked vault. Sen. Skelos could prevent that.” And he could do it before we lose another Glendalyz Pagan or Officer Alain Schaberger.