Term-limited City Council member Vincent Gentile (D-Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach) is looking to write a different narrative for the Brooklyn criminal justice system as a candidate in the upcoming Brooklyn District Attorney’s race.
He believes he is the best person to give Brooklyn residents back their hope in the criminal justice system that in previous administrations failed them and did not deal in fair and equal justice. In particular, former DA Charles Hynes’ rein and legacy led to a series of some 20 wrongful convictions which the late DA Kenneth Thompson overturned in his short tenure before he died from cancer last October.
Gentile is looking to separate himself from this “prosecute first” mentality and instead follow the moral ethics of the justice system, ethics he attributes to his 11 years in the Queens D.A. office serving under former Queens DA Richard A. Brown, in the Special Victim’s Bureau, and the Major Case Narcotics Bureau.
“This is where my training comes in from the rest of them [other candidates] because in the DA’s office in Queens, the professional ethics that we learned from DA Brown and the previous DA before Brown was the fact that your job in the DA’s office as a prosecutor is not to get as many convictions as you can. It’s not to go in and put as many notches in your belt as you can. The job, first and foremost of a prosecutor is to do justice. And if doing justice means reducing a case, or dismissing a case, or taking a plea in a case, taking a lower plea, than that’s what you do,” said Gentile.
The lifelong Brooklyn resident believes his lack of ties to the current Brooklyn DA’s office, including investigators, detectives and other criminal justice personnel is going to give him the advantage to prosecute cases with objectivity and equality.
Additionally, Gentile believes that he has the two elements necessary to fill the role of a successful Brooklyn District Attorney, a background in criminal law and political experience. Gentile was elected to the State Senate 1996, and served three terms before losing to current State Sen. Marty Golden in 2002. However, he won the City Council seat in 2005.
Gentile is also looking to bring new innovative ideas to the running of a DA’s office. In particular, he is looking to target at-risk youth in underserved communities through economic opportunities as a way to curve their entrance into the criminal justice system at a young age.
“As an elected official of 20 years, I would expand the scope of the DA’s office and look for those relationships that I have with labor, with non-profits, with businesses and conduct employment drives using those resources because the best way to help at-risk youth in underserved communities and to avoid recidivism is to provide jobs,” said Gentile.
Gentile also believes that partnerships with the DA’s office with organizations like Man Up Inc. and My Brother’s Keeper could help to decrease the number of people entering the criminal justice system and also provide treatment for those struggling with drug, alcohol or substance abuse that are repeat offenders. He believes this innovative idea could help to set non-violent, low-level offenders “in the right direction” and down the “right path.”
“Right now nobody has been elected to be District Attorney, so we need to have an election to be DA. Given my background and given my experience I feel this was the right job to run for. I think people are resonating with my message of being strong, giving hope and bringing in programs through innovative thinking that will increase the type of hope I want to bring to the DA’s office”, said Gentile.
Gentile is running against a field of candidates that includes acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Pat Gatling, Ama Dwimoh, Anne Swern and Marc Fliedner – all of whom have worked as assistant prosecutors in the Brooklyn D.A.’s office.
The primary election is Sept. 12 with the general election in November.
