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Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday rejected renewed calls to give judges new powers to keep pre-trial suspects behind bars, delivering a potential setback to a key part of Mayor Eric Adams’ new plan to tackle gun violence.
Hochul made the remarks in response to a question at a press conference about an anti-gun violence team where Adams appeared virtually, telling reporters that she agrees with the “fundamental premise” of the controversial legislation passed in 2019 and won’t “cave to pressure.”
“There’s opportunities to have these conversations with the mayor, as well as with the legislature as the session unfolds on any reforms that are recommended,” Hochul told reporters during a press conference marking the first meeting of the newly formed Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns, first announced at the governor’s State of the State address earlier this month.
“I will absolutely stand behind the fundamental premise on why we needed bail reform in the first place.”
The governor also accused judges, Republicans and moderate Democrats backing tweaks to the law of playing politics and pointed to tragic suicide of Kalief Browder — the 22-year-old Bronx man who spent three years on Rikers Island, including two years in solitary confinement, awaiting trial on charges that were ultimately dropped — to justify her support.
“Others, who are trying to politicize this, and the other party don’t seem to acknowledge why there was a need for change,” she said. “You had two individuals accused of identical criminal offenses, even stealing a backpack. And one person goes to Rikers for three years because they couldn’t post bail; another person — whose parents have money or they’re living in the suburbs — … can head back after posting bail to their jobs to school in a different life.”
Hochul insisted that she doesn’t change her stance based on the direction of political winds, promising to carefully consider data and arguments presented to her.
“If reforms are needed based on data that is still being gathered, I’m willing to have those conversations, so I don’t feel just because people, for political reasons, want me to give an answer, that’s not how I operate,” she said. “I don’t cave to pressure. I do what’s right based on all the facts that come before me.”
Her answer came in the wake of the ambush shooting that killed two NYPD officers. That on Tuesday sparked the official in charge of court operations for the state and six Republican members of Congress from New York to side with Adams’ call to amend 2019 bail-reform laws to grant judges more control over setting bail for defendants judges deem present a public safety risk.
Hochul’s Wednesday remarks put her in line with state legislative leaders Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-The Bronx), who voiced opposition to Adams’ request for Albany lawmakers to amend the state’s controversial bail-reform laws.
During a speech on gun violence Monday, Adams said, “We must allow judges to take dangerousness into account” when setting bail or deciding to jail someone pending trial. On Tuesday, Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks said during a budget hearing in Albany that “Many judges … would like more discretion in making determinations about bail and release of people accused of crimes.”
Meanwhile, Adams revealed during the press conference with Hochul Wednesday that the state court system had heeded his request to change from a 6-foot physical distancing regulation to 3 feet during trials with the aim of expediting court backlogs.
“I take my hat off to the chief justice that made immediate modifications on the social-distancing requirements from 6 feet to 3 feet, so we can start getting people back in the courtroom,” said Adams in virtual remarks.
But a rep for the Office of Court Administration flatly denied the social-distancing guidelines had been relaxed. Asked if OCA had reduced the 6-feet social distancing requirement in courtrooms spokesman Lucian Chalfen replied, “No.”
“Our eagerness to do so may have been misinterpreted by the Mayor that we already did so,” Chaflen added. “We are in full support of the mayor wanting the change.
Also Wednesday, Hochul announced that Calliana Thomas will serve as head of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, formed by ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in July. The task force includes representatives from several law-enforcement entities, including the NYPD, the New York State Attorney General’s office, Federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearm, as well as state police in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, Ohio, and Massachusetts, according to the governor’s office.
The formation comes as since Hochul was sworn in in August, roughly 740 people have been shot in New York City alone in about 590 acts of gun violence, according to NYPD data.
“Gun violence is a national crisis,” said Hochul. “This is not a New York phenomenon, this is a national phenomenon”
“We are compelled to do everything we possibly can,” she added. “We are coming at this issue with all the resources we can deploy.”
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