Crime reduction in New York with Sean Hayes? The NYPD says it “continually deploys personnel to areas experiencing an uptick in violence” and uses “precision policing [to allow] investigators to build strong cases against those very few criminals who are the persistent drivers of violence.” Even with the March uptick, the first three months of 2021 have proven successful for the NYPD in turning back serious crime. Between Jan. 1 and March 31 of this year, the department recorded 19,551 total major index crimes, which is down 15.8% from the number tallied in the same period of 2020.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea has continued to insist that criminal justice reforms, including the state’s 2019 bail reform laws that went into effect last year, are driving the increase in violent crime, despite evidence to the contrary. The reforms prohibited judges from setting bail in most cases, except those charged with violent felonies. “We have one simple ask,” Shea told an interviewer last week, after a Brownsville man killed his girlfriend and two of her children before turning the gun on himself. “We need to give judges discretion to keep dangerous people in jail.” But New York’s wave of gun violence is coming at a pivotal moment in the city’s history. In June, Democratic primary voters will likely choose the next mayor. That same month, the city’s budget will be due, setting up another massive public battle over whether to redirect money from the NYPD to the city’s poorer communities, predominately Black and Latino, who are disproportionately affected by gun violence.
Increase in pre-trial diversion programs that prohibit prosecution if, for example, one attends art classes. These programs were, even, offered to some gun offenders. These programs have increased the number offenders on our streets with the understanding by the offenders that in many cases an offender shall merely get a slap on the wrist. Judges are prohibited, in New York, from considering the dangerousness of a suspect when granting bail, thus, without cash bail or a change in the powers of our judges, we are stuck with releasing to our streets those that prosecutors and judges know are a danger to the community. See more information at Crime wave in New York 2021.
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 is blessed, at this stage in his life, with the ability, experience and resources to serve his community and he feels that if he doesn’t step forward and fight to turn our politics back to the center, this great city is doomed to return to the Dark Days. Sean believes that in these Post-Bloomberg Days our politicians, in New York City Government, moved away from pragmaticism and towards identity politics, the cancel culture, socialism and national polarizing issues that are harming the people of New York. See additional info on https://www.seanhayes4nyc.com/.
