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Trump Administration Working "Hand In Hand" With NYPD To Blame Violent Crime On Bail Reform
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Sep 16, 2020
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Sep 16, 2020
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Gun violence has skyrocketed in Brooklyn, and state bail reforms won't keep dangerous criminals behind bars, so the NYPD is partnering with the FBI to prosecute shooters in federal court—avoiding the state system entirely—in order to keep New Yorkers safe.
That's the thrust of a recent report on NY1, which details the rise of shootings in Brownsville's 73rd Precinct, which has seen 19 murders and 86 shooting victims through Labor Day this year, up from 11 murders and 44 victims in 2019.
“We’ve had Operation Safe Streets, which is a task force between the NYPD and FBI where we are bringing up federal charges on a selected few who are committing these shootings,” Deputy Inspector Terrell Anderson, the head of the 73rd Precinct, told the outlet. “They are actually working hand in hand with us. They are in the precincts every day and looking at these arrests as they come in."
Lieutenant Barbara Fischer, who leads the detectives in the 73rd, added, “The bail problem, we lock somebody up and they’re out hours after, while we’re not even done with the paperwork. think that’s very troubling."
After the program aired, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea came on NY1 to hammer home the connection between bail reforms and gun violence.
"It's frustrating. I can tell you from our point of view, that revolving door, that's the piece that's really not spoken about enough," Shea said. "We need dangerous people off the street."
Yet the NYPD's own data does not link bail reform to the increase in violent crime across New York City. An analysis issued earlier this summer by the Center for Court Innovation stated that it was "spurious to link aggregate crime trends in early 2020 to the new bail law," which went into effect at the beginning of the year and were modified in July after law enforcement groups, including the NYPD, lobbied the state legislature.
Another puzzling aspect to the NYPD's assertions that bail reform is causing gun violence: these crimes are considered violent felonies, and are clearly bail eligible.
Of the 10 federal gun arrests trumpeted in a recent press release as proof of the success of Operation Safe Streets, at least six had previously been prosecuted by the Brooklyn DA, according to public records. And at least three of those defendants were initially held on bail; one of the initial arrests happened in January 2020 after police allegedly found the defendant's DNA on a weapon in July of 2019, according to court records. Another occurred after a man allegedly drove drunk and crashed into a Citi Bike stand in Downtown Brooklyn at the end of March.
Nor is this "partnership" particularly new. For decades, the federal government has usurped state DAs to prosecute a handful of gun cases because they have jurisdiction, and because defendants can face hefty bail figures and higher penalties in federal court.
So why emphasize this federal connection now? And why use bail reform to justify it?
"Public safety is being weaponized leading up to the election," said Insha Rahman, an attorney and bail expert at the Vera Institute for Justice, a group that lobbied for bail reform. Rahman pointed to Attorney General Bill Barr's visit to New York City earlier this year in support of rolling back bail reforms.
"What we're seeing is the politicization of routine practices, where in general the federal government tends to defer to state court, but given how politicized the federal government is making public safety and crime in big cities, especially big Democratic cities like New York, it's no surprise," Rahman said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio's office did not respond to a request for comment. Asked how many cases have been prosecuted under Operation Safe Streets, the Southern District of New York, which handles federal crimes in Brooklyn, said they couldn't respond to our questions in time. The NYPD acknowledged receipt of our questions but didn't ultimately respond to them.
Last week, Barr made comments that were strikingly similar to Commissioner Shea's, criticizing New York's "revolving door" of reform.
“People in the community will not come forward and engage with the police if they feel that someone about whom they’ve given information is going to be right back out on the street. They need to know that when the police take someone away, they’re not going to be there the next day to retaliate,” Barr said.
Krystal Rodriguez, an attorney who studies pretrial detention at the Center for Court Innovation, said she was struck by how Barr and the NYPD described the judicial process as a "revolving door," given how much activity must occur in the 24 hours between when someone is arrested, and when they are supposed to be arraigned before a judge. "A ton of meaningful decisions happen in that process," Rodriguez said.
Rahman pointed out that New York is on track to have a year of crime similar to 2015, in which the city experienced 352 murders—historic lows compared to the late '80s and early '90s, and far less than even the total in 2002 of 587, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office. She acknowledged the rise of violent crime, but said that Shea and others were ignoring "the most obvious contributor: the pandemic and mass instability, mass loss of education, employment and housing and everything else that truly keeps our community safe."
Michael Rempel, the director of jail reform at the Center for Court Innovation, said it was far too early to draw any hard conclusions on how the new laws have affected New York so far, given that the policy has been in effect less than a year, and that COVID-19 has created "a series of confusing dynamics" within the criminal justice system that make it even tougher to study.
"We do need to debunk this notion that bail reform jeopardizes public safety. It probably increases public safety, by avoiding the harmful effects that create recidivism that studies have repeatedly shown result from incarcerating people," Rempel said.
Tagged
shootings
pandemic
Bail reform
nypd
analysis
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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