Editor’s Note: Kings County Politics of late has been reveiving letters in addition to our readers ability of offer comments at the end of posts. The following are three letters we recently received:
Re: DOI Finds NYCHA Failing To Remove Dangerous Criminal Offenders
Dear Editor,
The report issued by the Department of Investigation (DOI) is a misguided, blinkered approach to the problem of gun crime in NYCHA. Evicting and breaking apart families will not address this problem, it will make it worse.
Punitive policies, like evicting a family when someone in their household is arrested, do not increase public safety. When a person is evicted or excluded from their home after an arrest, they are separated from the family and community supports that are proven to reduce recidivism and help a person engage fully in rehabilitative programming. Eviction and exclusion based on arrest allegations punish families and punish communities.
New York City is in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis. Affordable housing is scarce and shelter use has reached the highest levels ever. When NYCHA excludes an individual or evicts a family, there are few other housing options. The City has been working hard to address this and devoting resources to keeping families in stable housing. It is surprising to see DOI, a city agency, working at cross-purposes to these efforts by recommending punitive policies that uproot families and contribute to homelessness.
NYCHA has been working earnestly with residents and stakeholders to refine their use of permanent exclusion to target individuals who pose an actual risk to the safety of tenants. NYCHA should be credited for its efforts to keep families together while contributing to resident safety. The cases cited by DOI as examples of NYCHA’s failure rely on one-sided and unproven arrest allegations. DOI did not speak to NYCHA residents, to families, or to any community members during its investigation.
Residents know better than anyone that NYCHA needs investments to fix broken locks at their buildings and increased economic opportunity in their communities. These are real solutions to the problem. DOI’s senseless call to evict families and put people on the streets helps no one.
Alison Wilkey, Esq.
Policy Director, Prisoner Reentry Institute
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Hamilton Joining The IDC & Raise The Age Issue
To the Editor:
First, Senator Hamilton didn’t cosponsor Senator Montgomery’s bill S4121 like other real progressives in the Assembly and Senate did. Instead, he cosponsored her much weaker bill S4157, which, like the Governor’s proposal, excludes violent felony offenses, and routes non-violent felony offenders through a youth part of adult criminal court. As the Village Voice reports, “A compromise like this would give Democrats the slimmest of pretexts to claim victory, while allowing Republicans to maintain control.” http://www.villagevoice.com/news/if-ny-politicians-really-want-to-stop-locking-up-teens-why-wont-they-do-it-9773201.
This is not what fighting looks like. Second, the IDC budget resolution is a mere cut-and-paste of the Republicans’ regressive Raise the Age language:
IDC:
Article VII Proposal (S.2006-B) * PART J – The Senate will modify the Executive proposal that raises the age of criminal responsibility for 16 and 17 year olds in the State of New York. The Senate supports raising the age of criminal responsibility while ensuring public safety and the proper balance of the role and responsibilities of established court systems. The Senate believes that the State should assist in ensuring that 16 and 17 year olds receive the treatment and programming they need in order to avoid the repeated cycle of mass incarceration that many of our youth experience today. At the same time, we must ensure that the victims of crimes and the effect of criminal actions against society as a whole are also taken into consideration as we weigh changes to criminal justice policy. Further, the Senate believes that any confinement of 16 and 17 year olds, if needed, must be in an appropriate setting and expresses particular concern about 16 and 17 year old inmates incarcerated at the Rikers Island Facility. The Senate will also ensure that any changes necessary to achieve these desired reforms will have no added financial burden to the counties or other local governments/entities. www.nysenate.gov/legislation/resolutions/2017/r1050
the age of criminal responsibility for 16 and 17 year olds in the State of New York. The Senate supports raising the age of criminal responsibility while ensuring public safety and the proper balance of the role and responsibilities of established court systems. The Senate believes that the State should assist in ensuring that 16 and 17 year olds receive the treatment and programming they need in order to avoid the repeated cycle of mass incarceration that many of our youth experience today. At the same time, we must ensure that the victims of crimes and the effect of criminal actions against society as a whole are also taken into consideration as we weigh changes to criminal justice policy. Further, the Senate believes that any confinement of 16 and 17 year olds, if needed, must be in an appropriate setting and expresses particular concern about 16 and 17 year old inmates incarcerated at the Rikers Island Facility. The Senate will also ensure that any changes necessary to achieve these desired reforms will have no added financial burden to the counties or other local governments/entities. www.nysenate.gov/legislation/resolutions/2017/r1051
This is definitely not what fighting looks like.
Constituents have been calling on the Senator to clarify his position and have repeatedly been met with platitudes: “The Senator supports Raise the Age in the budget.” In addition, to strengthen instead of weaken the negotiating position of the Assembly and Senate one-house bills in the next budget, we have asked that the Senator leave the IDC immediately and bring his colleagues with him to the renewed and reinvigorated Democratic majority that New Yorkers voted for.
Otherwise, it looks to constituents like there are other interests than policy at stake.
There’s your story!
Sincerely,
No Love for Linda Sarsour’s Politics
To the Editor:
In her April 4th Op-Ed (Linda Sarsour: NYC’s Queen of Hate) in the New York Post, Lahav Harkov, The Jerusalem Post’s senior Knesset correspondent, takes on Linda Sarsour for preaching hatred as she portrays herself as a champion of equality. Ms. Harkon is right on target. Sarsour’s hateful rhetoric, her support of far-left causes, and her belief in Sharia law are well known in the communities of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights that she calls home.
In short, Ms. Sarsour is radical and wrong in her views. As Harkov says in her piece, this past week Sarsour shared a dais with Rasmea Odeh who “was convicted in Israel of killing two Hebrew University students in a 1969 terrorist attack and of planning an attack on the British Consulate…Odeh has become a leftist hero. Sunday night she and Sarsour embraced, and Sarsour gushed to the audience about feeling ‘honored and privileged to be here in this space, and honored to be on this stage with Rasmea’.”
Ms. Harkov also briefly cites Linda Sarsour’s activities as Executive Director of the Arab-American Association of New York (AAANY). This organization is worth a far closer look. The NY Post reported on March 13, that the non-profit hosted political functions for the Muslim Democrats and a phone-bank used by Senator Bernie Sanders during his bid for president; violations of both state and federal laws!
On March 20th, I sent a letter calling on New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to investigate the AAANY, Ms. Sarsour, and its Treasurer, Khader El-Yateem to see, if in fact, taxpayer dollars were used to promote political activity. To date, the attorney general’s office has not replied. Significantly, Mr. El-Yateem is a Democratic candidate in Brooklyn’s 43rd City Council District, and Sarsour is his biggest supporter who emceed his campaign kick-off announcement. Sarsour stated, “If you elect Khader El-Yateem you will have better than the first Arab-American into the City Council. If you get him you get all of us into the City Council.” Brooklyn does not need someone who represents Linda Sarsour’s views in City Hall.
I hope readers would join me in calling for this investigation. This is America, Linda Sarsour is allowed to spew all the hate she wants, but, she can’t use our hard-earned tax dollars to help finance her far-left friends.
Bob Capano
Republican City Council Candidate 43rd C.D.
Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach, Bensonhurst
