New York crime wave solutions by Sean Hayes, 2021 candidate for NYC Council? Jullian Harris-Calvin, the director of the Greater Justice New York program for the Vera Institute, said that while it will take years to fully understand COVID-19’s influence on violent crime, it is undeniable that the mass death, unemployment, and economic instability that accompanied the pandemic literally upended society, especially for people who are traditionally harmed by gun violence. “COVID-19 had a unique affect on familial and community support systems. It disproportionately affected Black and brown communities,” Harris-Calvin said.
Asked about the increase in gun violence on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio argued that state-mandated COVID-19 restrictions are hamstringing the court system, leading to more violent crime. “Remember our court system is not functioning right now and that is making it bad for everyone,” de Blasio told a reporter. “We don’t run the courts. The State of New York needs to bring back our court system.” Lucian Chalfen, a spokesperson for the state court system, pointed out that the court system is running and regularly arraigning defendants after they are arrested. While in-person jury trials resumed three weeks ago, grand juries have been meeting since July. “Virtually, just last week, we commenced more than 1,200 bench trials and hearings (no jury) and conferenced 23,870 matters – both civil and criminal,” Chalfen wrote in an email. “On a daily basis NYC Criminal Court arraigns anywhere from 175-250 defendants, including 3 to a dozen illegal gun possession cases and holds other hearings in lieu of grand jury presentations.” Chalfen added, “The mayor should remember that the way shifting blame works is to be cognizant as to how another branch of government is functioning before doing so.”
Election of Brooklyn’s District Attorney Eric Gonzales and other pro-reactionary radical criminal-justice reform movement prosecutors led to the decriminalization of many crimes, the emboldening of criminals and the acquiescing to bail, by prosecutors, in all but the most exceptional of cases. This led to an increase of dangerous suspects and convicts on our streets. In 2017, the NY City Council passed legislation that moved to close Riker’s Island and to replace Riker’s Island with jails around the City. With one jail scheduled to be built in City Council District 1. The new proposed system shall, only house 1/2 of the present jailed population. Thus, the Mayor’s Office and City Council proposed additional alternatives to incarceration programs such as the Mayor de Blasio and the NY City Council commenced program to decrease the number of people in prison and implement a supervised release program. Many of those scheduled to be released shall be dangerous to the community. Find extra details at New York crime wave solutions.
Additionally, the detractors note that many of the crimes were crime of desperation caused by economic stress on families. However, this argument does not pan out when we consider the statistics. The reality is that throughout New York’s history a link is not found between poverty and shootings. For example, the lowest homicide rate was, in New York, in 2016 and the poverty rate was higher in this year than in the year when we had the highest homicide rate – 1989. The stats do not add up to poverty being the cause of the increase in homicides and shootings.
Sean Hayes a 47-year old NY Attorney; Head of an International Law Firm; former lawyer working in China, Korea & Southeast Asia; former Professor, CEO, Dean of a UN University and Journalist fears that our City shall turn to the Dark Days of the 80s and early 90s, because of reactionary and radicalized politics in New York and the lack of experience, pragmatism, and problem-solving skills of our politicians. Sean is running in the Democratic Primary for City Council in District 1. Sean looked around and saw that the majority of candidates running for NY City Council and for Mayor lacked experience, centrist viewpoints & pragmatism and were too radicalized to manage the needs of residents of New York City. Discover extra info at https://www.seanhayes4nyc.com/.