Gounardes Backtracks on Bail Reform
Last year, Senator Andrew Gounardes voted for the bail reform bill. When the bill came out, everyone thought they would revise it before it went into affects.
While the NY Bail System needed to be updated, the senate went ahead removing the bail for some more serious crimes without envisioning how these bills would impact communities. For instance, it’s fine to remove bail for someone bribing a politician – that person isn’t physically going to harm anyone. But someone who is assaulting someone needs to be held….even if it is long enough for the drugs to wear off or get a mental check. Many people who have committed hate crimes fall into those two categories.
Senator Gounardes heads a district which has both Jewish and Muslim residents that have been victims of hate crimes. Why did Gounardes vote for the bill to include hate crimes?While most senators from Upstate NY probably don’t see many hate crimes, Brooklyn has a lot of haters. Children seeing that people aren’t held in jail when they are deliberately
Gounardes backtracking now is good. See his whole statement here.
Last season Gounardes co-sponsored the state harassment bill and that had to be revised this year because there was a loophole that excluded the staff. Andrew needs to read these bills more closely.
Hugs,
marlene
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