Governor Kathy Hochul’s latest announcement — that she will finally expand involuntary deployments — is a necessary but insufficient condition for public safety in New York.
But the governor must be even bolder and go further in protecting the people of New York from the violent crime wave unfolding on the streets and in the subways.
The subway system had its highest homicide rate in 27 years. Statistics only tell part of the story. No number can capture the heinous act of setting a straphanger on fire and the sheer terror it causes in the hearts of New Yorkers.
After weeks of declaring “mission accomplished” and taking selfies on the subway, Governor Hochul finally agreed to make the urgently needed policy changes I have been advocating for since the Ramon Rivera disaster: expanding the involuntary effort to give the mayor the authority he needs to move dangerous people from the subways and streets of New York.
In the three years since the shocking murder of Michelle Go, who was pushed in front of an incoming subway train by a schizophrenic, the governor has stood by like a deer caught in the headlights and done nothing to protect New Yorkers from those with serious mental illness .
Governing is not about waiting years for more tragedies to happen. It’s about leadership, which is nowhere to be found in New York State.
For far too long, the broken system in Albany has chosen gaslighting over governing.
You don’t have to worry about New York, the political establishment tells us.
You don’t have to worry about open-air drug markets on the streets.
You don’t have to worry about sudden stabbings, punches and shovings on the subway.
You don’t have to worry about fewer and fewer stores with more and more products locked in boxes.
You don’t have to worry at all.
Just ignore your lying eyes. Only it’s not our lying eyes that lie to us. It’s the gaslighting of the governor and the broken system she runs.
Kamel Hawkins, who pushed an innocent New Yorker in front of an incoming subway train, was allowed to roam the streets and subways freely despite a known history of repeated violence.
The average New Yorker is wondering: How could a criminal inflict a back injury on a cop in June 2019, only to be released back onto the streets?
How can a criminal be charged with assault and gun possession in October 2024, only to be released back onto the streets? The release of the most violent criminals is a license to kill. And he almost killed.
New York State must end the practice of releasing repeat offenders who then commit violent crimes against innocent New Yorkers.
We must reexamine all laws that have resulted in the release of repeat offenders and compromised the ability of prosecutors to prosecute serious offenders across the state.
The legacy of these well-intentioned social experiments is a criminal justice system that too often puts its thumb on the scale, not in favor of the victims of crime, but in favor of the criminals themselves.
Most egregious of all, New York is perhaps the only state—a scandalous outlier—that prohibits judges from considering risks to public safety when setting bail.
The governor should propose legislation through the budget that allows judges to consider public risk, which is a matter of common sense. If the issue of risk to public safety were put to voters through a referendum, it would receive the support of 80% of New Yorkers, across all demographic groups – black and white, Latino and Asian.
But in Albany, where the far left has veto power over the rest of us, 80% of issues are dead on arrival.
Common sense, which commands the broadest consensus and constituencies among New Yorkers, should be the rule of law in New York State, and nowhere more so than when it comes to matters of life and death.
Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres represents the 15th District.
