Kings County District attorney Eric Gonzalez wasted little time in rolling out a new initiative yesterday at his packed and celebratory inauguration at the former Williamsburg Savings Bank Building and now The Weylin event space in Williamsburg.
Dubbed the “Brooklyn DA’s Justice 2020 Initiative,” Gonzalez announced the plan in his inaugural speech, just minutes after being sworn in with his wife holding the bible, and his three children standing beside him.
“I’m announcing the Brooklyn DA’s Justice 2020 Initiative, which is aimed at keeping Brooklyn safe and strengthening communities’ trust in our criminal justice system by ensuring fairness and equal justice for all,” Gonzalez, Brooklyn’s 33rd District Attorney and the first Hispanic district attorney in the state.
Gonzalez said the initiative will have four prongs including:
- “My office will promote a justice system predicated on fairness, equity, compassion and fiscal responsibility;
- We will double down on our obligation, as prosecutors, to do justice, not just seek convictions;
- We will work toward outcomes that restore and heal victims and communities, and we will work to reduce racial disparities in our system;
- We will continue to identify and focus on those who do the most harm; the drivers of violent crime, those dangerous individuals will face the full force of the law. We will get them off the streets, and our streets will continue to be safer for it.”
The event drew about 1,000 people. It included several hours of speeches from a good many elected officials and dignitaries including Mayor Bill de Blasio, Public Advocate Letitia James, Comptroller Scott Stringer, Sate Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and several musical selections from Nuyorican salsa legend Willie Colón and his band.
There was also bittersweetness to the inauguration, as Gonzalez was named acting DA in October 2016, just days before his predecessor, Ken Thompson stepped down days before succumbing to cancer.
“I also want to acknowledge, and to remember, one towering figure who isn’t with us today. And that is my friend and mentor, the late great Ken Thompson. We all imagined that today would be Ken’s day, his second inauguration, and that we would be looking back on his accomplishments, and looking forward to the future. So this is a bittersweet moment for me, and for many of us,” said Gonzalez.
“I know that Ken would be so proud of where the Office stands today, of how the staff held together to carry on his legacy of reform. We stand tall today on Ken’s shoulders, and we look forward to a bright future because of the groundwork he laid in the far too short time he held the office of Brooklyn District Attorney,” he added.
Gonzalez noted how he worked with Thompson in establishing the office’s Conviction Review Unit, which thus far has vacated 24 wrongful convictions.
The borough’s top prosecutor pointed out how Brooklyn crime is at all-time low, and vowed to not criminalize poverty by keeping people in jail just because they can’t afford to pay bail.
“In keeping with my support for, and commitment to, closing Rikers, we are leading the city in reducing reliance on cash bail,” said Gonzalez, who grew up on the hard-scrabble streets of Williamsburg and East New York when Brooklyn crime as at an all-time high.
“We will continue to find new alternatives to incarceration for people whose issues can be addressed in better ways. We will reduce our reliance on jails and put an end to mass incarceration,” he added.
