It’s beyond ridiculous: Five candidates aiming to unseat Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance next year have joined to slam him for … wanting to be able to jail people arrested for looting.
New York’s “no bail” law lets accused looters walk as soon as they make it in front of a judge, no matter the damage they’ve done or how much they got caught trying to steal.
No matter that criminal gangs exploited civic disorder to ransack stores vacated amid the pandemic: Thanks to Democratic legislators and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Vance and other DAs across the state have no option.
Vance last week appealed to state leaders to change this madness: Cuomo to use his emergency powers to change that, asking the gov to use his emergency powers so that judges can order looters held on bail, and the Legislature to pass a law that, while ending all cash bail, would give judges the power to remand defendants deemed “dangerous” or to have a “clear risk of re-offense.”
“This is about people who are taking advantage of this moment when people want to come out and protest peacefully,” Vance said. “I’m calling for more judicial discretion.”
Utterly reasonable — but not to Assemblyman Dan Quart (D-Manhattan) and his four comrades. They call it a “harmful political stunt” from the DA, pretending that his real goal is “to unlawfully detain people protesting the murder of George Floyd and the many black and brown people killed by police violence.”
Talk about despicable: These pols are trying to exploit legitimate anger over Floyd to protect looters who’ve made New York’s recovery from the lockdown even more tortured. For shame.