While New Yorkers have been playing the game of life, it seems that since Democrats formed a trifecta in Albany in 2018, they have been playing their own game called “Let’s See How Destructive Our Criminal Justice Policies Can Be.”
We’d say that they’re certainly winning, although it hardly feels like anyone is winning, and if you consult with literally any person residing within the State of New York, they’d probably tell you in no uncertain terms just how thrilled they are to be winning so much.
In fact, New Yorkers are so tired of endless legislative victories that they’re packing their bags and taking indefinite vacations in Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee to celebrate.
What has the public not made abundantly clear about Governor Hochul and company’s overhauls of the Empire State? Nobody really clamored for the initial bail reforms in 2019 except progressive activists and pathologically altruistic urban hive-minders, who have since been nowhere near as vocally supportive of the measures since they were initiated. We’ve seen how much of a mess those laws have been and we see it more and more with each wave of new crimes, drugs, and practices all ushered in by a new society of delinquency, irresponsibility, and victimhood, each one more destructive than the last.
The original mantra of the bail reform laws was to “balance the scales” of justice by allowing criminals convicted of small or minor crimes to be released without having to post cash bail, a practice considered discriminatory against certain groups of people who might not be as cash-flush as others, further perpetuating the mass incarceration state and culture of institutionalization. A valiant effort, and there are certainly some “pay to play” aspects of society, but the activists lobbying for bail reform were naive at best, while the lawmakers who laid ink to the parchment were all too intentionally coy about the ramifications of the law changes.
What we’ve seen in just four short years is a complete undermining of the criminal justice system, which has been especially destructive given that we live in a time where the old counterculture of “rebelling against the system” is not only the norm, but it’s an ideology actively being taught to the next generation. A healthy distrust of government is something we here at The Messenger have advocated for in the past, but some forms of government are absolutely required, as too much distrust leads to anarchy.
And that’s essentially where some parts of the country, including New York City, are at this point: anarchy. Not to mention that the bizarre cognitive dissonance we’ve seen with some on the progressive front is nothing short of mind-boggling. In one breath, the system needs to be destroyed and rebuilt, but in another, if we maintain that healthy distrust of government, then we’re a “threat to democracy” – a form of government the United States, markedly, is not.
Kathy Hochul’s latest installment in further corroding public safety is nothing but the final squeeze of lemon juice over the intensely painful paper cut New York has been trying to heal since 2019. But Albany seems intent on keeping that paper cut the type that just when it’s about fully healed, a quick stroke of the pen or executive order opens it right back up again.
The newly-minted “Clean Slate Act” automatically seals the records of almost all crimes after certain periods of time depending on the nature of the crime. Examples include, but are unfortunately not limited to: manslaughter, vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, gun felonies, most kidnappings, assaults – including gang assaults and assaults on police officers – attempted murder in the second degree, animal abuse, arson, hate crimes, and even some terrorism offenses.
That’s right: if you committed one of these crimes, after a set period of time, your record is sealed and not available in a typical background check. The timing could not be more prudent, as this week, District Attorney Ray Tierney (R) and Sheriff Errol Toulon (D) highlighted a creative case of inmates smuggling fentanyl into the Suffolk County Correctional Facility on pieces of legal documents. Cashless bail kneecaps prosecutors’ abilities to retain certain types of offenders who handle, traffic, or distribute fentanyl, and now “Clean Slate” will seal – not expunge – records of such crimes after certain periods of time.
Herein also lies the hypocrisy of most Democrats, namely progressives, who make every day about hate crimes and gun violence: if such acts truly are reprehensible – and they are – why are they working to lessen the long-term impact of committing such crimes?
The left takes advantage of any type of act of gun violence to institute, or at least try to institute, sweeping gun bans and reforms. The left also gets ridiculous mileage out of anything related to race, class, sex, or any other physical characteristic. While people should not be discriminated against based on any of those criteria, the left seems to perform the most outlandish forms of mental gymnastics to tug on the heartstrings of moderates to back their insane reforms, such as “Cashless Bail,” “Raise the Age” (teens younger than 18 cannot be criminally charged as adults), “Less is More” (expedites parole time accrual), and now “Clean Slate,” all objectively regressive ideas that punish law-abiding citizens, many of whom are the protected classes the left swears to defend every day.
If the left held these values true, they would lobby to at least remove such provisions from “Clean Slate.” But it’s not about results, it’s about leveraging talking points for the next election. If the left removes evidence of such horrible crimes, then those crimes are essentially the gifts that keep on giving to their pathologically altruistic, progressively myopic plans to fundamentally change this state and country.
It’s not that New Yorkers – or people in general – aren’t compassionate. We understand that peoples’ mistakes don’t define them and that second chances are truly great displays of mercy. But the paper cut needs more grains of salt than drops of lemon juice, and judges should be returned their power to rule on a case-by-case basis to see which pillars of society should be defined by their mistakes for the protection of the community.
And just to go back into the history books, the United States did see a decent model for true criminal justice reform: the First Step Act. A 2018 bipartisan bill pushed and later signed by President Donald Trump, it addressed reducing recidivism, decreasing the federal inmate population, and reforming federal prisons, all while maintaining public safety. The bill was approved by almost all Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate, yet most people forget this landmark product of the Trump Administration because they were too busy getting instructions from the mainstream media on how to voice their hatred for him.
Here’s The Messenger’s ownfinal squeeze of lemon juice over the paper cut: the bill was seen as a repair to the disastrous 1994 Senate Crime bill, penned by none other than Joe Biden. The bill is often pointed to as a reason for the disastrous state of institutionalization and recidivism we see in the United States today.
Some leaders have given us a step forward, but in Hochul’s New York, “Clean Slate” is a monumental step backwards. We could certainly see the logic in trying to remove barriers for people whose mistakes shouldn’t define them. New York is the twelfth state to introduce some type of “Clean Slate” bill, and some think tanks have highlighted the legislation’s success in other states. But the three prior steps backwards New York has taken should be rectified before a stronger “Clean Slate” bill can be considered, especially one in which records are not automatically sealed. Further removing individual judicial discretion from the New York criminal justice system is entirely unconscionable.
The paper cut has, yet again, been reopened by Albany Democrats, but this year’s criminal justice package, by far, stings the worst.
