New York’s bail reform law is to blame for spikes in gun violence and murder, Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday according to the New York Post.
The law, which went into effect in July, allows judges to set bail for more criminal charges than originally allowed under a sweeping 2019 reform that mostly did away with cash bail for many people awaiting trial.
New York City in July had a 177 % spike in shootings compared to last year, according to the Post. In August, shootings were up 165 % and murders were up about 50%.
“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.
“In New York, for example, which had one of the best community policing programs in the country — it’s just an amazing program. It’s essentially falling apart right now because of the changes made in state law on bail reform, where people are just out on the street almost instantaneously, and their lawyers get access to the information provided to the police that served as the basis for the arrest.”
The New York Legislature passed the legislation in 2019. Soon after the law went into effect, in January 2020, the New York Police Department released figures showing a spike in crime. It said the looser bail rules were to blame.
New York in April amended the law with a number of changes, including allowing cash bail for additional crimes, including second-degree burglary, vehicular assault and sex trafficking, among others, and crimes committed by a “persistent felony offender.”
Barr said the increases in crime may be due to a number of factors involved, “but part of it is the emboldening of the criminal elements, the chronic offenders, and the perhaps withdrawal of the police in the wake of the attacks on the police,” he said.
“A lot of these hoodlums on the street feel that have impunity to carry their guns out on the street. They don’t hide them anymore.”
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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