People will literally die if Lee Zeldin is elected.
I’m sorry to sound like one of those desperate Democratic fundraising emails but, yes, people will literally die if Trumpy clown Lee Zeldin is elected Governor of New York State.
Although Zeldin’s candidacy is really about slashing rich people’s taxes, his campaign has centered on reversing bail reform. He’s pledged to suspend the bail reforms instituted in 2020 on day one.
Since he announced his previously long-shot run for office, Zeldin has lied and lied about bail reform. When a man attacked him at a campaign event — with a key chain key shaped like a kitten — and the attacker was released hours later, Zeldin blamed bail reform and Kathy Hochul. But it turned out that the judge who released the attacker on his own recognizance not only was a Zeldin supporter but sat on one of his campaign committees (and no, it wasn’t that bail reform tied the judge’s hands. Judges have the power to remand).
Criminal justice hardliners have recently honed in on the death of Eve Hendricks’ 17-year-old son to attack Hochul and bail reform. Hendricks has spoken out against the Governor, claiming she’s failed to keep dangerous people behind bars.
It’s understandable that her grief would drive her to activism. But her horrific tragedy points to a different conclusion than the need to reverse bail reform. Her son’s killer doesn’t appear to have had pending criminal charges at the time of the shooting, so he wouldn’t have been in jail regardless of bail policy. More importantly, he’s currently sitting in jail because he was remanded by a judge despite bail reform.
In fact, as hard as they’ve tried, Zeldin and other hardliners have yet to dig up a case where an offender violently re-offended while they were out specifically due to bail reform. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility, especially since the crimes most likely to escalate from misdemeanors to homicides are domestic violence incidents. And neither police, prosecutors, or judges have terrible record of protecting victims.
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