Ex-Gov. Paterson says it’s time to demand border, crime reforms after migrants freed despite beating cop
Ex-Gov. David Paterson raged Sunday that the migrants busted for beating two cops in Times Square and then allowed to bolt should be the final straw when it comes to dangerous US border and crime policies.
The Democratic former New York governor said the deeply troubling incident is an epic scandal and that the public should demand changes to ongoing lenient related policies, which have been led by the Biden administration and city law enforcement such as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“Maybe this is the right case for people to really start standing up and demanding more accountability from our government,” Paterson said on the “Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM radio.
Paterson did not target politicians or authorities by name when urging reforms after the Jan. 27 caught-on-video beat-down of the NYPD officers.
But he clearly was referring to everyone from President Biden to Bragg and Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Martinez Alonso, who released three of the defendants on their recognizance last week.
The prosecutor’s office could have sought to hold the accused criminals on bail under the law but did not, and the jurist failed to impose the key safety measure either way.
“First of all, we let them into this country,” Paterson said of the migrants — in an apparent dig at Biden, who has been criticized for his adminstration’s lax border policy.
“Second, they get into a fight. Third, when the police try to break up the fight, [the migrants] have no respect for law-enforcement, and the police become the victims,” Paterson said.
“There’s no counterpoint to this. Somebody needs to do something about it.”
For starters, Paterson said, the defendants are not American citizens afforded the same presumption of innocence in a criminal case.
He said the migrants are “people from other countries, and you don’t even know what their [criminal] records are in those countries.”
Paterson then waded into New York’s controversial cashless bail law. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Democratic-run legislature outlawed cash bail for most non-violent crimes in 2019. While the law has been tweaked several times to detain serial offenders, for example, many law-and-order critics say the policy is still too permissive.
Paterson noted that bail is supposed to be used as a tool to ensure a defendant shows up at his criminal trial — and not flee.
“In this particular case, they didn’t even have a bail hearing. They released these [migrant defendants] on their own recognizance, which is supposed to mean there is no way they will leave the jurisdiction,” Paterson told host John Catsimatidis.
But the defendants did flee, reportedly to California.
“We’ll never see them again,” Paterson predicted.
“Just deport them! That’s what should have happened,” he said.
“Victims of crime — no matter who they are — should have a right to have the crime prosecuted. And it’s not going to happen in this case, because these people aren’t coming back,” he said.
Adding insult to injury, one of the released defendants gave people the middle finger upon release, he noted.
The disturbing incident began on a Saturday around 8:30 p.m. on West 42nd Street when an NYPD officer and lieutenant told a group of loitering migrants to move along.
The interaction devolved into the mob of migrants converging on the officers, raining kicks on their heads and body, footage shows.
Seven migrants were eventually charged in the assault on the officers — and six are believed to have fled to California with the aid of taxpayer dollars thanks to government-paid bus tickets given asylum-seekers.
The six who fled include Darwin Andres Gomez, 19; Kelvin Servita Arocha, 19; Wilson Juarez, 21, and Yorman Reveron, 24, all of whom were freed without bail.
Of the three others arrested — Jhoan Boada, 22; Jandry Barros, 21 and Yohenry Brito, 24 — only Brito is still being held at Rikers Island on $15,000 cash bail.
Bragg issued a joint statement Saturday with NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban in which the DA vowed to work “hand in hand” with cops on the case.
“Our office continues to work with law enforcement to bring everyone responsible for these heinous attacks to justice,” the embattled DA said in a statement. “It is clear from video and other evidence that some of the most culpable individuals have not yet been identified or arrested.”
