How many more innocents must die before bail ‘reforms’ are fixed?
Post Editorial Board
New York Post
June 10, 2021
'Young Gunnaz' gang member Alberto Ramirez
Alberto Ramirez, 16, was finally jailed Monday after his arrest in the stray-bullet murder of a construction worker — having been let back on the streets after prior gun arrests thanks to a “merciful” judge.
Meanwhile, the Legislature is looking to make life even easier on criminals, while the anti-anti-crime likes of Maya Wiley, Alvin Bragg and other lefties stand a dangerously strong chance of taking control of law enforcement in this town.
Eric Velasquez
Eric Velasquez, 34, was just walking down a Bronx street when Ramirez, a reputed member of the “Young Gunnaz” or “YG” gang, allegedly ventured onto the turf of the rival “Slattery Avenue Boys” gang and started firing indiscriminately in what gangbangers call “spinning the block.”
Ramirez was locked up on $75,000 bail on March 2 when acting Supreme Court Justice Denis Boyle dropped the amount to $10,000 cash or $25,000 bond over prosecution objections, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday — and his family bailed him out a few weeks later.
It wasn’t Boyle’s first go-’round with Ramirez: In December, the judge overrode prosecutors’ objections to free the teen with no bail over an earlier arrest. He also sent two of Ramirez’s gun cases to Family Court, though the DA’s Office wanted to prosecute him as an adult.
In all, Ramirez had three prior gun arrests, for incidents on Oct. 21, Dec. 12 and Feb. 8. But the revolving door worked each time, and now he’s charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter.
Boyle, sadly, was going with the political flow: Even with shootings and homicides soaring, all too many New York politicians seem to think the answer is “violence interrupters.” And the king of Bronx politics, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, is firmly committed to not holding teens accountable even for serious crimes.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, meanwhile, kibbitzes about what a rotten job the city is doing in facing this crime wave — yet has signed on to all the Legislature’s recent “criminal-justice reforms” that make it harder for city cops and prosecutors to protect the public, while telling judges to impose “the least restrictive alternative” when it comes to bail.
Keep releasing a teen arrested with a gun out of some misbegotten idea of mercy, and eventually he’ll fire it — potentially taking another life and horribly derailing his own.
New York’s political class should be united now in hanging their heads in shame.
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