The news these days seems to be focusing on some pretty dismal subjects. The frightening uptick in anti-Semitic attacks keeps haunting us, as if a slow motion Kristallnacht is engulfing us. There nary seems a day in which there are no anti-Semitic attacks in the New York City area or in surrounding suburbs. The fact that identifiable Jews are being targeted and we know that that means Orthodox Jews, is beyond disconcerting.
Secondly, we are in the midst of what appears to be a possible war on the horizon. Just tonight we learned the news that Iran has decided to make good on their promise to retaliate against the United States for the planned assassination of chief Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani just last week. While the Iranians were mourning their alleged “hero” and valiant statesman, it appears that a stampede erupted that left over 50 people dead and over a hundred wounded. Kind of reminds us of the stampedes that occur on a regular basis at the annual Haj ceremony in Saudi Arabia. What is it about Muslim mourners and the penchant to start rioting? Someone explain that one to us.
To keep on topic, however, we wish to discuss the newly instituted bail reform laws in New York City. Having been officially implemented on January 1st of this new year, these new bail reform laws, (originally intended to help low income offenders) have morphed into an issue that threatens our system of law and order.
While those advocates of bail reform promulgate their illogical liberal notions that a new set of bail reform measures will help to make the lives of repeat offenders of petty crimes a lot easier, we tend to strongly disagree. After all, they will no longer be hit with the pressure and extreme stress of having to come up with some big bucks for bail (which they don’t have) and can now leave the confines of jail on their own recognizance and they can be on their merry way to yet another run in with the law.
We are told that the new bail reforms will not pose a significant threat to our system of justice as the “no or super low bail” will only be offered to those who commit crimes in which their intended target was not physically injured or hurt in some substantial manner. We would imagine that the court will be left to decide what substantial injuries really mean.
So, the new bail reforms might actually make the taxpayer a bit happier, knowing that his or her tax dollars are no longer being spent on supporting the extensive volume of prisoners in the nation’s jail network. When we give this issue some serious thought and review, we cannot honestly say that prisons have succeeded in providing correctional instructions to inmates. The statistics for repeat offenders keeps climbing and even one time offenders often come out of prison in even worse shape than they entered.
Rather than learning to become a productive member of society and a person who respects our laws enough not to break them, many offenders choose this path in life and morph into career criminals.
Some folks have referred to prisons not as correctional institutions but rather crushing institutions.
Having said that, just ask anyone in your neighborhood where they would want a person who commits a crime in which they injure someone or not to be, and our strong hunch is that they will tell you that they consider their own safety and the safety of their family to be a priority and that if someone has to spend time in the “joint” then so be it.
Bottom line is that the new bail reform measures are sort of like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It seems benign enough on the surface but if one should dig a bit deeper one will see that these new measures can and indeed will open up a whole new pandora’s box of troubles that we never envisioned.
Folks, New York City has enough problems as it is. Our police force is demoralized and not treated with the kind of respect they should be, and the last thing we need is yet another crime surge due to repeat offenders leaving the presence of their sentencing judges with just a metaphorical slap on the proverbial wrist.
