New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has shown that she is not willing to back the blue and defend law enforcement. She recently signed into law the “Less is More Act,” which would stop states from putting ex-cons back behind bars for missing appointments, violating curfew, or testing positive for drugs or alcohol. Most people have described NY’s “Less is More” program as “less enforcement and more violence,” even though Hochul has claimed that her administration does not support defunding the police.
Recently, Hochul appointed Amit Bagga as her deputy secretary for intergovernmental affairs, which is a key post in the administration. Bagga lost the City Council primary in June for Queens’ District 26 seat, even though he received support and endorsement from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a notable left-winged political figure.
Although Bagga took down his campaign site, screenshots have saved his proposals for cutting down the NYPD’s budget by $3 billion, reducing the size of the force by 5%, removing cops from public schools, and mental health responses, as well as decriminalizing all drugs. He’d also responded in a Jim Owles Democratic Club online questionnaire that he “strongly believes” in the dismantling of the specific type of police state we live in. He went on to say that the criminal justice system is rooted in the “original sin of slavery” and that the system itself is weaponized to “criminalize, impoverish and murder Black Americans in particular.”
But Bagga is not the only official looking to cut down on law enforcement. Hochul’s newly appointed lieutenant-governor Brian Benjamin also tweeted his support of the defund-the-police movement back in January when he said he believes there are parts of the NYPD budget that are “not essential” for public safety.
Hochul has focused on the massive jail complexes and described the ongoing violence in them as “deeply disturbing,” arguing that most inmates have served their sentences for the crimes they’ve committed. She emphasized how New York incarcerates more people for parole violations than anywhere in the country, adding that it is a “point of shame for us” and that it needs to be fixed. She has continued to defend the controversial public positions of her appointees by saying that no one in her administration supports defunding the police.
“That was a catchphrase that had very negative connotations. And I believe that we have to continue to fund the police in the state to make sure that they can protect, particularly black and brown communities where sadly and tragically, so many black and brown communities are being hit hardest,” Hochul said.
But GOP chair Nick Langworthy criticized Hochul’s appointees and said in less than a month she has managed to stack the top levels of her administration with “extreme radicals” and pave the way for thousands of criminals to be released from jail. “She’s so desperate to stave off a primary, she’s gone full AOC,” he said.
Hochul’s policies have already taken a toll as a man suspected in a brutal hatchet murder was released from a New York jail as a result of the new state law. It was a second-degree murder case in which 47-year-old Heather Majors died after being stabbed 30 times with a hatchet in her Rochester apartment on July 10. The man, Joseph Rivera, had been previously arrested for violating conditions of his parole and was a suspect in Major’s murder. He was supposed to be held in jail until December 2021 until the “Less is More” act released him. He was rearrested hours later after investigators contacted the U.S Marshals Violent Felony Fugitive Task Force and told them officers did not know he had been released.
The crime must have penalties and punishment otherwise there’s no reason to abstain from committing the crime. Criminals have no moral compass and the Democrats are setting up a stupid and dangerous concept that will only endanger the public.
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