In defense of prosecutions
Public safety is very much on the ballot in the battle for the Democratic nomination for Manhattan district attorney on June 22. The contest is a chance for New Yorkers to answer some basic questions about what we believe about human nature, crime, fairness, justice and what constitutes a safe city.
Most of the eight candidates are running on a promise to have Manhattan join jurisdictions around the country — including Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, San Francisco and Boston — that have elected so-called progressive prosecutors in recent years. These candidates want to shift the resources and philosophy of the office away from investigation, indictment, prosecution and incarceration, and in the direction of addiction treatment, mental health treatment, second-chance programs and other interventions that don’t involve punishment and prison cells.
A great deal of reform has already taken place under departing DA Cy Vance. In 2013, according to the office’s data dashboard, more than 98,000 cases were disposed of by the office, a number that fell by more than 60% to the 44,000-plus cases in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
Most of these cases were for drugs, petty larceny, vehicle violations or disorderly conduct, offenses that many of the current candidates for office say should not be prosecuted at all.
There’s a longstanding national debate over the purpose and value of arresting and prosecuting people for nuisance crimes like public drunkenness, prostitution, shoplifting, fare-beating, loitering and possessing small amounts of illegal drugs. The common-sense consensus is that hassling people for such minor offenses is a waste of time and money that doesn’t add much to public safety.
Or does it?
A few of the candidates — notably, attorney Liz Crotty — used this week’s 90-minute televised debate (available online at NY1.com) to argue that it’s dangerous to abandon traditional law-and-order methods too quickly.
“Don’t let my opponents fool you. This election, and the job of district attorney, is about public safety,” said Crotty. “Victims’ voices have been muted by calls for reform.”
It’s jarring to hear candidates like Tahanie Aboushi promise to stop prosecuting all misdemeanors, which would include burglary, trespassing and incidents like the recent vandalism of synagogues and some of the shoving and harassment of Asian New Yorkers.
“If prosecution and incarceration did anything for hate crimes, we wouldn’t be still experiencing it,” Aboushi said at the debate, reflecting a deeply skeptical view of the value of prosecuting low-level crimes shared by Eliza Orlins and Assemblyman Dan Quart.
But it’s much too easy to simply dismiss the value of holding people accountable for nuisance behavior. In the case of shoplifting, for instance, any one shoplifter who steals a handful of goods probably shouldn’t be jailed and put through the system — but if word spreads that shoplifting carries no serious penalty, some stores will be looted to the bare walls in no time.
Common sense dictates that certain kinds of seemingly minor disorder can spiral out of control.
“It is not okay to walk into somebody’s store and take what you want and walk out,” Tali Farhadian Weinstein said in answer to a hypothetical scenario.
But that was the exception to the rule. When it comes to sex work, petty theft and other minor crimes, most candidates want to divert defendants away from jail and into treatment programs or counseling.
“Get the folks the services they need so they’re not churning in and out of Rikers year after year,” candidate Alvin Bragg said. “We’ve lived this since I was 12 years old in Harlem.”
The truth, however, is that the services may not be available in the quality and quantity needed to begin sending thousands of cases to nonprofit organizations. And there’s an open question about what happens if a defendant simply refuses to go to rehab or counseling; are we sending them for medical treatment on pain of imprisonment for declining to go?
The biggest question hanging over the reform movement is whether swapping cops and courts for counseling and community solutions is contributing to the current spike in shootings and violent crime in New York and elsewhere.
Nationwide, the record is mixed. In San Francisco, which elected progressive prosecutor Chesa Boudin, violent crimes decreased last year — but burglaries went up 42% and car thefts increased by 34%.
In Philadelphia, where progressive prosecutor Larry Krasner is often held up as a model, 499 people were murdered last year — one shy of the largest annual number of homicides since 1960. Shootings are soaring this year, and Krasner, who is up for re-election this month, is singing the same reform tune, blaming the violence on “this city’s chronic failure to invest in prevention that the community is crying out for.”
Results are more positive in Boston, but violence is soaring under progressive prosecutors in Chicago and Baltimore.
Manhattan’s moment of decision comes next month. Let’s hope they choose wisely.