Let’s build upon bail reform laws

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Manhattan: Re “Job two in Albany: Reform bail reform” (editorial, Jan 8): Last year, Gov. Cuomo and the Legislature — after full analysis and input from community, law enforcement and district attorneys — ended cash bail for the majority of offenses. This was done without incorporating a provision requiring judges to engage in the wholly unreliable guesswork of predicting future crimes. It was the right thing to do.

Just more than two weeks old, our new bail laws have freed thousands of presumptively innocent people across the state from pretrial detention based solely on their income status back to their families and communities.

The hysteria raised by law enforcement and other critics is no surprise and not new. All of the supposed concerns have been addressed and public safety was prioritized.

Other states that enacted comprehensive bail and discovery reform saw similar backlashes to their changes in law, but now those states have much-improved systems. And last year when the reforms were debated, prosecutors and judges from those jurisdictions actually joined us on calling on Albany to pass reform.

Albany must stand strong and instead of rolling back anything, lawmakers must build on these reforms by enacting others.

A sense of humor

Marie Ndiaye, supervising attorney decarceration project, The Legal Aid Society

Montrose, N.Y.: Eugene Webb, “a giggling suspect,” was released without bail on Friday (“Hah! I’m out and didn’t pay bail,” Jan. 11). He has violently attacked three women in the past six months. Webb did not show up for a scheduled hearing last October yet the judge presiding over the case did not feel that one “misstep” was not enough to merit jail time. I, for one, want to apologize to the three victims. As a New Yorker, please know that this mentality is not one that all New Yorkers share. You will not hear from Gov. Cuomo or any of the others who have their hands in this bail reform law. They are too busy with their own personal agendas, but know you are not alone at the outrage you must feel. I have lived in New York my whole life and it pains me to watch this state go in a downward spiral. Innocent people are assaulted and traumatized as perpetrators walk away laughing. I am not laughing as there is nothing funny about the direction we are going in. Shame on us for letting this happen to our state. Wake up, New Yorkers, as any of us can be the next victim.

Deborah Plunkett

Amurica

Hicksville, L.I.: Welcome to the Liberal Utopia where criminals get to roam free no matter how many times they commit crimes against hardworking Americans. A Shangri-La where the homeless can camp out anywhere in taxpaying neighborhoods — except by those lily-white, gated communities, of course. A haven where you can get everything for free if you’re here illegally, where we get into treaties that do absolutely nothing to benefit our country, and allow students to run the classrooms. A community where everyone who liked their health insurance gets kicked off and put on a crappy government plan. What a winning message for 2020.

Puff, puff, pass

Hot Springs, Ark.: Re “The great vape escape” (editorial, Jan. 5): This article is insane. Outlaw cigarettes. Choose your battles.

Auditor

John Gelormino

Olympia Pakis

Whitestone: Before I retired, I was the director of quality assurance for a large longterm care facility. Every department had a mandatory auditing schedule and reported those results to me monthly. I shared those findings with the administration. If a department failed to meet an acceptable level of compliance, a plan of correction had to be developed with a time frame for completion and repeat auditing. Is there no such department in NYCHA?

Cindy O’Connor

Meg and Harry

Manhattan: What’s this “across the pond” crap? It’s the Atlantic Ocean.

Robert Angelo

In appreciation

Brooklyn: I am writing to you as a human being, a citizen of the greatest country, a resident of New York State and a member of the Orthodox Jewish community. I wanted to thank you for caring about fighting the terrible antiSemitism that had been going on recently. Also, it is very special that you had the courage to place the picture of the victim on the cover page, as I was hoping for at least one newspaper to have the guts to do that.

Mendy Shanowitz

Old school

Bergenfield, N.J.: How is it that the Daily News is not delivered in New Jersey on Wednesdays? Is it a ploy to have to read the digital news and pay a monthly fee to do so? There are still a lot of us who love the paper in hand.

Jack De Lucia

Sincerely grateful

Rosedale: Happy New Year and kudos to the DOT for the decision to add a left turn signal at the east side of Merrick Blvd. and heading south on Laurelton Parkway. It has been long overdue. Cars heading east at that corner routinely blocked the intersection causing gridlock and preventing egress from autos attempting to turn east from the southbound Laurelton Parkway exit. With one move the DOT alleviated years of unsafe conditions and driver frustration. Congratulations and thank you on behalf of myself and the neighborhood. Deborah Gaston

City planning

Bergenfield, N.J.: The idea for the AirTrain to run from LaGuardia to the No. 7 subway and the Long Island Rail Road is dumb (“Best mayor, worst airport,” editorial, Jan. 15)! They’re forcing people to take two trains instead of direct service into Manhattan. This is just as bad as the AirTrain from JFK to Jamaica and change to the LIRR or the subway. Other cities offer direct service from their airports

ALEC TABAK/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS into the cities. There should be an extension of the N and W trains to LaGuardia so there can be direct service into Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn as well.

ICE-d Preach There is one

Jim Kerner

Holliswood: Re “ICE flouts rules: report” (Jan. 14): The Immigration Defense Project report, “Denied, Disappeared and Deported: The Toll of ICE Operations at New York’s Courts in 2019” states there were 127 arrests statewide by ICE. Let that sink in. 127 arrests in one year statewide. That’s less than one per day. The horror. Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill.

Gregory W. Chupa

Mohegan Lake, NY.: Isn’t it funny how people who claim to have high moral and ethical standards generally have an extremely low tolerance for, and acceptance of, the differences in human beings?

Michael W. Domis

Flushing: If there were a Pulitzer Prize for political cartoons, there is no question it would be awarded to Bramhall of the Daily News and justifiably so.

Benjamin M. Haber