New York state has another virus to worry about in addition to the global coronavirus pandemic, "the crime virus" generated from lawmakers' missteps in criminal bail reform, according to former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton.
"They're not doing enough," Bratton told Sunday's "The Cats Roundtable" on 970 AM-N.Y. "I expressed concern, when the initial reforms came out, they were poorly written, poorly conceived, and being poorly implemented and worried that if they started tinkering with it and needed to 'reform the reforms,' that they would make even more of a mess of it.
"And they've done it."
Garbage in and garbage out, Bratton added to host John Catsimatidis.
"The New York legislature almost needs to be named the New York Department of Sanitation, because they put so much garbage in, they basically generate a lot of garbage coming out," he said. "And that reform package coming out is more of the same.
"The bill still does not allow the judges to take into account the risk of that person in front of them, that person's risk to public safety," he added.
This is in addition to New York becoming the world epicenter for COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths, another failing of leadership there, according to Bratton.
"Where we are at the moment is not a good place," he said. "We know it's going to get worse before gets better. We're still struggling. We've made progress, but there is still a long way to go: Many more deaths, many more illnesses, a lot more confusion.
"I'm an optimist, and I'm very confident we will get through this, but not without great cost," Bratton concluded.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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