POLS, PROTECT US!
The father of slain NYPD Detective Randolph Holder joined two grieving mothers whose teenage children were shot dead to demand that judges and city officials get tougher on guns.
Speaking at a lower Manhattan press conference on Monday, the three parents chided recent state and city crime reforms — and pending police reforms being weighed by the City Council — saying the initiatives will inflame the Big Apple’s spike in violence.
“The pain is still within,” said Randolph Holder, Sr., whose officer son was shot and killed by a notorious gang member in Harlem in 2015.
“I’m calling on all judges to be tougher on sentencing for crimes of guns so that if you do the crime you’ve got to pay the time,” Holder said. “My son was a very good man.”
He also called on the mayor and governor to “institute tougher laws for these perps, the criminals.”
The plea comes as the City Council faces an April 1 deadline to come up with police reforms under a mandate by Gov. Cuomo.
Among the proposals being considered by the council is a move to take department discipline duties away from NYPD brass and ending qualified immunity for cops.
Police union officials also said Monday that city and state laws in recent years — including the state’s bail-reform measures — have only served to put more guns on the streets of the five boroughs.
“They have tied the hands of the police and they have jeopardized the safety of every New Yorker,” said Detectives Endowment Association President Paul DiGiacomo.
“To our elected officials, we’re calling on you to immediately introduce legislation in honor of Brandon Hendricks, Shamoya McKenzie, and Detective Randolph Holder, who lost their lives to gun violence,” DiGiacomo said.
Hendricks, 17, was shot dead last year when gunfire erupted at a Bronx party, and McKenzie, a promising 13-year-old basketball phenom from Mount Vernon, was killed by a stray bullet while driving with her mom in the Westchester County city in 2017.
“Reform is not working for the purpose they put in place,” Nadine McKenzie, the teenager’s mom, said Monday. “I’m hoping another family doesn’t feel what I’m feeling. It’s really affecting us. Crime is so high after bail reform. They need to change it because it’s not doing what they wanted.”
Hendricks’ mom, Eve, recalled the June 28 death of her son, who was also killed by a stray bullet.
It was two days after his highschool graduation and nine days shy of his 18th birthday.
“This is not right and it’s not fair. I’m calling on judges, please, you have to stop releasing criminals that are charged with guns, putting them on the street because they end up doing the same thing they did to go in,” she said.