Blaz to board: Must not free evil cop killer
MAYOR DE BLASIO fired off an impassioned letter to the state Parole Board urging it to reverse the decision to release a man who executed two NYPD cops.
De Blasio sent the missive about 10 days after state officials elected to free Herman Bell (photo inset) — drawing howls of outrage from victims’ family members, police groups and politicians.
“Murdering a police officer in cold blood is a crime beyond the frontiers of rehabilitation or redemption,” de Blasio wrote.
“I urge the Parole Board to reverse this decision and keep Herman Bell behind bars, where his own evil actions rightly placed him.”
Bell has spent 45 years locked up for the cold-blooded murders of Officers Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini in May 1971.
The former Black Liberation Army member and two cohorts lured the cops to a Harlem housing project, where Bell shot Jones in the head. Piagentini was tortured and shot 22 times.
The Parole Board signaled that it moved to release the cop killer in part because he took responsibility for the crime and expressed his remorse.
Jones’ son welcomed the decision, but his siblings, as well as Piagentini’s family, lashed out at state officials after learning the news.
In his letter dated Friday, de Blasio noted that Bell also murdered a San Francisco police officer three months after gunning down the two NYPD cops.
“Paroling Mr. Bell sends the dangerous signal that killing a police officer is anything less than the most heinous of crimes,” de Blasio wrote.
“Freeing him is a matter of great pain and suffering to many family members of the fallen and to the greater family of the NYPD.”
Bell, now 70, could be released from an upstate prison as early as April 17.