NO JUSTICE FOR JUVENILE CRIME VICTIMS

Juvenile justice reform is a farce for crime victims 

 

Post Editorial Board

 

New York Post 

January 29, 2023

Teenage criminals continue to get away with heinous crimes. 

 

Let’s not let the criminal-justice system’s horrific failure in the case of Fox News weatherman Adam Klotz’s subway beating fade from view without emphasizing the obvious: If it’s this bad in such a high-profile case, it’s terrible in hundreds of other ones that never make the news.

Four teen hooligans got caught from the larger group that beat Klotz into the hospital, after he’d simply spoken up as they were threatening an older man on the subway. All four got released without charges, simply given “juvenile reports.”

Under NY’s lunatic Raise the Age law, three of the attackers got the revolving door despite video evidence. The fourth, 18, was arrested, charged with misdemeanor third degree assault, and handed a desk-appearance ticket to show up to Manhattan Criminal Court . . . eventually.

 

              Adam Klotz was beaten up by a group of teenagers after trying to help another victim. 

 

That is, it’s not just Raise the Age, which ensures that under-18s almost never face serious consequences even for serious crimes: It’s also other “reforms” that make an assault — even one that sends someone to the hospital — into a mere misdemeanor, with judges having no power to even remand violent perps.  

That’s obscene: The system is supposed to speak and work for crime victims, not demand they fight (against the system!) for a measure of justice.

Progressives insist their reforms are all about “equity.” But the main victims are the people who live in largely minority, lower-income neighborhoods most plagued by crime — as well as the teens encouraged to embark on a life of crime.

Adam Klotz will likely be OK. It’s the downtrodden New Yorkers that progressives claim to care about who pay the main price. How much longer will their ideology blind them to reality?