Bad enough that judges recklessly set thugs free despite prosecutors’ pleas, but if DAs won’t even ask for bail, we’re in serious trouble.
That happened this week when an ex-con — who once tried to kill a cop! — was arrested for attacking another officer in The Bronx and prosecutors didn’t even try for bail.
Judge Audrey Stone sprung Isus Thompson after he was nabbed for smashing Officer Kyo Sun Lee in the head with a heavy backpack. Thompson had served time for trying to murder another cop in 2008.
Following his Sunday arrest, the would-be killer was charged with a felony, which gave the judge discretion to set bail. Yet prosecutors from the Bronx DA’s office chose not to ask for bail but only for “supervised release,” requiring Thompson merely to check in with the court periodically.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea rightly went through the roof: “Do we have to wait for him to kill someone before this is taken seriously?”
Bronx DA Darcel Clark’s office won’t say why it wanted Stone to cut Thompson loose. But in today’s upside-down progressive world, prosecutors too often view cops as culprits and perps as victims.
Incoming Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, for one, stresses his distrust of the police. Indeed, he’s had a grudge against them since being stopped by cops as a teen.
Yet if prosecutors and cops can’t trust each other and cooperate, crime is sure to soar. Take Chicago, which logged 698 murders this year as of Friday, up from 442 at this time in 2019, or 58 percent.
No doubt, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s view of cops and her reluctance to prosecute even wildly violent criminals are fueling the spike. A recent video showed gangs in a full-blown shooting war that left one dead and several wounded, yet Foxx let the offenders off. Local police chiefs are so incensed, they’re pushing legislation to let cops override her charging decisions.
San Francisco’s anti-cop DA Chesa Boudin (whose parents actually took part in the murder of two police officers in the 1981 Brink’s robbery) has similarly presided over an upsurge of violence, including attacks on cops.
“If it’s not safe for the police officers right now, what should the general public feel?” asked ‘Frisco police union chief Tony Montoya.
Tuesday, we called out acting Supreme Court Justice Denis Boyle for his shameful record of springing violent defendants. But if prosecutors won’t even push judges to keep dangerous people off the streets, Montoya’s right: Where does that leave law-abiding citizens?