Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) expressed that judges should use discretion to hold violent criminals for longer after several immigrants suspected of attacking New York City Police Department officers reportedly left the state.
“I want judges to hold people and find out if there’s been a history, a pattern here,” Hochul said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday. “They should not be back out on the streets, terrorizing neighborhoods or sweeping the shelves and making these poor businesses have to shut down and leaving a neighborhood without a pharmacy or place to buy their diapers.”
New York authorities say 14 people were involved in attacking two NYPD officers in front of a migrant shelter on 42nd Street in Times Square last week. Some of the suspects were believed to be staying in a city shelter for housing for immigrants.
Six have been charged so far, and five have been released without bail, a decision Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has defended.
“It’s just wrong and we’re coming at it hard,” Hochul added. “I’m putting more money for district attorneys. I’m going to sit down with the legislature again this session and figure out how we can toughen the laws. But the bottom line is we are not going to let chaos reign in New York.”
Sources familiar with the matter told NBC New York that four of the men who were charged and released without bail boarded a bus heading for California. According to Fox News, federal authorities in Arizona arrested multiple immigrants Monday evening and are reportedly investigating if they are the same people responsible for the NYPD attack.
“I have to first say that was an abhorrent act, and anyone who thinks they should have been let loose, I have a big disagreement with. A number of them, we think, went on a bus. They were freed because no bail was posted,” Hochul said.
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“I worked hard to change the bail laws in New York state. Those crimes were bail eligible. They had a right to be held, and you know, the district attorneys may be bringing new charges, but it’s frustrating. It never should have happened, and you don’t put a hand on a police officer anywhere in the state of New York and get away with it,” Hochul added.
Last year, Hochul announced a record $233 billion spending plan that included plans to give judges more discretion in setting bail for people awaiting trial for crimes, rolling back New York’s 2019 bail reform law.
