Republican Lucretia Regina-Potter and Democrat Pamela Harris are facing off in the Nov. 3 special election to replace former Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny for the vacant 46th Assembly district seat. The district includes Coney Island, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and small slices of Brighton Beach and Bath Beach.
As their campaigns move into the homestretch, KCP is asking both candidates a weekly question pertinent to the district. Below is this week’s question and their unedited responses.
The fourth NYPD policeman in the past 11 months was killed in the line of duty last week. Meanwhile, our prisons continue to be filled with a record number of inmates, many of whom are either awaiting their day in court, such as at Rikers, or serving lengthy prison terms for non-violent crimes that in some cases were committed at a relatively young age. What type of criminal justice reforms, if any would you like to see, and what is your views on the bail reform measures being floated by the de Blasio Administration and the City Council?
Pamela Harris: Recent tragedies continue to raise grave concerns and call for an immediate need to restore faith in our state’s criminal justice system. It’s saddening and unacceptable for our brave men and women to be losing their lives in the line of duty while protecting our streets. As a former correction officer, I’m committed to standing up for our families and it’s important to me that our officers are safe and feel assured that they can do their jobs effectively. I’ve also seen firsthand what works and what doesn’t in the fight against crime – this is another reminder that more must be done to get rid of guns out the hands of criminals.
Our community’s safety depends on the level of trust the public places in our system and the officers who enforce our laws. However, recent events have shaken the assurance of both communities and law enforcement. That’s why we have to get real about improving community relations between law enforcement and residents. That begins with hiring more officers to establish relationships, better community-minded training, ending unnecessary pressure from government leaders, and offering our youth and most vulnerable better opportunities to stay off the streets and out of trouble.
As the founder of Coney Island Generation Gap (CIGG), I’m proud of my efforts in my community to keep kids off the streets by providing them with new opportunities, but we need to multiply that effort across the state. Our at-risk youth should be encouraged to make better life decisions rather than having a system that keeps letting them down. Our teens like Kalief Browder, who spent years in the adult system for simple mistakes, and 16-year-old Andy Hernandez, who was arrested on gang assault charges and spent three years in jail and never got a trial, show that our system is broken. Both Kalief and Andy died because of it. It’s simply unacceptable. Lawmakers must act now to stop tragedies like this in the future. When we process minors as adults and incarcerate them with adults in local jails and adult prisons, they are more likely to commit additional crimes. Most other states address juvenile crime more effectively, and at a lower cost, by treating 16- and 17-year olds differently than adults. I understand Governor Cuomo’s efforts to reform New York’s criminal justice system and improve public safety in our state. I’m also encouraged that the state Assembly has advanced legislation for many years to encourage greater cooperation between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve to ensure equal treatment under the law and demand public safety. If elected, I’ll be a strong advocate for those measures and ensure that the diverse voices of our New York state residents are heard loud and clear.
My heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to the officer’s family who was killed, all officers killed in the line of duty. And all people victim to gun violence.
Lucretia Regina-Potter: Officer Holder’s murder at the hands of a career criminal is a tragedy that all New Yorkers should feel deeply. All lives matter, and especially those in blue that faithfully protect our people from those that only have evil in their hearts. Crime has to be fought on many different levels such as a well-trained and proactive police force, and a better education system that actually prepares our kids for the real world. More after school programs and youth centers are needed to give our young people somewhere to go and activities to do. These youth centers should be up and running in all neighborhoods. A large portion of our population has lost hope, and is distrustful of those in power, especially in our criminal justice system.
Faith in the American criminal justice system is in decay and it needs to be restored. Is this dysfunction real or just perceived? When a huge sector of a nation’s population does not trust their criminal justice system, it is heading for a catastrophe. Without trust in our criminal justice system, we have nothing. We do need the police, the district attorneys and our courts to protect us from those in society who would want to exploit our society as we see happening in many third world nations. However, we cannot have the criminal justice establishment breaking the rules whether it is for expedience sake, or just because they can. They must follow the established rules that protect the innocent, though sometimes those rules do let criminals walk. On occasion, we must suffer consequences of letting a criminal go, but it is better than sending an innocent man to jail. That is why I am proposing these reforms to try to bring trust back to our criminal justice system.
- We not only want body cameras for law enforcement officers, but also have cameras on all police vehicles. This will be a mandatory law for all New York State local and state law enforcement departments.
- First time nonviolent offenders, instead of getting jail time, will have to do mandatory community service during their parole sentence. Examples of this could be helping serving food at senior centers or homeless shelters, picking up garbage at parks and playgrounds, or helping make repairs at NYCHA Housing. This community service will be eight hours a day, six days a week, unless they are in school or have a job. If they have either, then they would have to serve two hours a day after school or work, and 12 hours on the weekends or days off.
- Judges, when determining sentencing, need to review a defendant’s full criminal history, which will include sealed juvenile records to formulate an informed decision. Once a trial is over, and a criminal has been convicted or has pleaded guilty, there should be no problem with a judge reviewing these records to get a better picture of the defendant’s character to determine sentencing.
- The prison terms for white-collar crimes, such as identity theft and cybercrimes, need to be substantially increased. Cybercrimes are increasing at an alarming rate and costing our economy billions of dollars to defend, while disrupting and destroying individual people’s lives for years. These types of crimes in most cases, are much worse and more costly than being mugged.
- A defendant has a right to speedy trial. It is unconscionable that a defendant has to sit in jail for three years before his case goes to trial. We must come up with a reasonable statutory limitation on continuances by both the prosecution and the defense when a defendant is incarcerated. If the defendant is incarcerated, we also need to set a statutory time limit before their trial must be set to begin.
- We need to set up an independent panel under the State Attorney General Office, but not controlled by this office. This panel will have the power to start an investigation into any District Attorney’s Office in the state. They also will be given the power to decide if a special prosecutor needs to be appointed for any controversial case in the state. This will take politics and emotion out of some of the more inflammatory cases.
- We need to modify our judicial review panels. Sometimes judges go too far in their decisions or run their courtrooms like their own personal fiefdoms. This is why I want to add non-legal people to the review panels. They will be teamed with retired judges, lawyers, and law professors.
Too many of our elected officials are no better than ambulance chasers. When a problem many have known about for years becomes a headline, they want to come up with a quick fix. Most politicians today only look at treating the symptom and not the disease. A prime example is the City Council and Mayor’s proposal to pay the bail for some defendants, instead of looking at the big picture as to why someone is sitting in jail for three years for a minor crime.
For our country to survive and not break down into total anarchy, we must have a criminal justice system that is based on trust. My proposed reforms will not solve all our issues and not everybody will be satisfied. Yet we must begin somewhere for the healing to start. Our law enforcement, District Attorneys, and judges perform a vital function for this country, and we must expect that they perform their duties with honesty and care. The criminal justice system must also respect our rights and freedoms, as we must respect those that perform these vital functions. Without mutual respect and understanding, it will not work. We must make it work for all of us. Working together is the only way we can live and thrive in our communities.
