BY FRANK VERNUCCIO
From the White House to
the streets of America’s cities,
the progressive ideological
concept of not responding adequately
to those who do harm
to the innocent has wreaked
havoc.
The Obama administration’s
semi-pacifi st foreign
policy proved disastrous.
When Beijing assaulted the
Philippine Exclusive Economic
Zone, the 44th President
didn’t even lodge a diplomatic
protest. When Russia
invaded Crimea, he responded
with only weak sanctions. In a
move duplicated recently in
Afghanistan, all U.S. forces
were withdrawn from Iraq, a
move that gave rise to the rise
of the ISIS caliphate.
Currently, with another
progressive in the White
House, a new round of violence
is under way. Moscow is
preparing for an invasion of
Ukraine, unless the U.S. provides
key concessions. That’s
the moral equivalent of a mugger
negotiating with you how
much he will take from your
wallet. China is preparing to
assault Taiwan. Iran, despite
being already bound by nonnuclearization
treaties, is developing
atomic weapons.
A similar response occurs
CIVIC CENTER
Community Action
Civic Association
to crime throughout America’s
cities where progressive
district attorneys exist.
The Law Enforcement Legal
Defense Fund reports that “
the failure to keep criminals
locked up had tragic consequences.”
Concepts such as defunding
police forces, and especially
bail “reform,” have endangered
public safety on a
massive scale.
Examples abounds, in New
York, the completely Democrat
controlled government
attacked the appropriate use
of bail. As the new policies
were being proposed, Court
Innovation.org noted that “In
January 2020, New York State
put into effect sweeping criminal
justice legislation, strictly
curtailing the use of cash
bail and pretrial detention…
In New York City, 43 percent
of the almost 5,000 people detained
pretrial on April 1, 2019
would have been released under
the new legislation. Outside
of New York City, the effects
could be even greater.
Of the almost 205,000 criminal
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Korony Post 253
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, F 56 FEBRUARY 18-24, 2022 BTR
cases arraigned in New
York City in 2018, only 10 percent
would have been eligible
for money bail under the new
law.”
In San Francisco, the
newly elected District Attorney
Chesa Boudin told Jacobin
magazine that “Our system
of mass incarceration is
grossly disproportionate to
our problem with crime and
public safety. In fact, the way
we arrest and lock people up
actually makes us less safe,
creates more crime. For too
long politicians have falsely
equated victims’ rights and
public safety with conviction
rates and length of sentence…”
The failure of soft on crime
policies, whether in foreign
affairs or in America’s cities,
is clear. Examples from New
York and California are well
known. The Manhattan Institute
examined a few other
jurisdictions. In Baltimore,
Chicago, Cincinnati, Ferguson,
Missouri, and Riverside,
California, investigations led
police to scale back proactive
policing. Each of these jurisdictions
saw sharp drops in
police-initiated interactions,
such as pedestrian stops. As a
result, “almost 900 excess homicides
and almost 34,000 excess
felonies occurred over a
two-year period.”
Nationwide rates of violent
crime have skyrocketed. The
refusal to incarcerate or to
keep incarcerated offenders
defi es the evidence. The U.S.
Bureau of Justice Statistics
outlines the statistics:
About 6 in 10 (62%) prisoners
released across 34 states
in 2012 were arrested within 3
years, and 7 in 10 (71%) were
arrested within 5 years.
Nearly half (46%) of prisoners
released in 2012 returned
to prison within 5 years for a
parole or probation violation,
or a new sentence.
Eleven percent of prisoners
released in 2012 were arrested
within 5 years outside
of the state that released
them.
Eighty-one percent of prisoners
age 24 or younger at release
in 2012 were arrested
within 5 years of release, compared
to 74% of those ages 25
to 39 and 61% of those age 40
or older.
New Jersey Assemblyman
Bob Andrzejczak, in a letter to
the Lexington National Insurance
organization, noted that
his states’ bail reform “has
been an absolute disaster. The
public safety needs of citizens
in New Jersey have suffered
far greater than could have
been imagined. The costs to
the state have increased exponentially
and, even worse, the
constitutional rights of many
of the accused are being infringed.”
BY LOUIS LUTNICK
The proposed shelter at
2028 White Plains Road was
discussed during our meeting
on Tuesday, Feb. 8. Councilwoman
Marjorie Velázquez
said she would fi ght for what
the community wants, and
in order to do that she needs
our questions and concerns
in order to bring it to her colleagues,
Department of Homeless
Services and the City
Council.
The Pelham Parkway
Neighborhood Association
has made our position clear,
we do not want a 140-bed men’s
shelter in our community
and absolutely not at that site.
Please join our voice and send
your objects/questions/concerns
to our councilwoman.
You can call Councilwoman
Velázquez’s district offi
ce at (718) 931-1721 or email to
district13@council.nyc.gov.
BY TONY SALIMBENE
Hope everyone had a wonderful
St. Valentine’s Day and
had a fun Superbowl Sunday.
And I hope that was the last of
the snow, although it did snow
during a St. Patrick’s Day Parade
one year.
Our third Sunday regular
post meeting will be at American
Turners, 10:30 a.m. coffee,
11 a.m. meeting and 12
noon lunch with cash bar.As
of this writing, I don’t know
what will happen in Europe? I
fear the worst right now. Pray
for peace.Don’t forget Bronx
American Legion Korony Post
253 on Facebook, been at that
for a while now. Also, if you see
a strange area code, it’s post
calls with possibly important
info. I’ll include myself on the
next call and see which number
and tell you.Reminder: St.
Patrick’s Day Parade is scheduled
for March 13.Until Next
Time: It’s not a mistake if you
learn something from it.
CIVIC CENTER
Pelham Parkway
Neighborhood
Association
BY AL D’ANGELO
Let me address the “elephant
in the room.” I start
with a quote from Dr. Martin
Luther King: “I have a
dream that my four little children
will one day live in a nation
where they will not be
judged by the color of their
skin but by the content of
their character.”Great words
which seem to have fallen on
deaf ears. We are all equal in
the eyes of God, yet we constantly
use race and ethnicity
to defi ne us. Starting with the
President of The United States
who promised he would nominate
a black woman to the Supreme
Court, to the fact that
there are complaints that
there are too many Asians
in specialized schools. Every
time someone is chosen because
of the color of his/her
skin or their ethnicity, we diminished
their accomplishments;
we take away the fact
that they are the best at what
they do and not just put into a
position because of their race.
Mayor Adams was chosen because
the electorate felt he
was the best suited to lead the
city. The fact that he happens
to be black should be a source
of pride for Black New Yorkers
because he rose to the
position judged by the content
of his character not the
color of his skin.Think about
it: should we hire an Asian
to manage a baseball team
because there are no Asian
coaches in baseball; maybe
a transexual to coach an
NBA team because they are
not represented; how about
adding more Latinos to the
NHL since they are not well
represented?As ridiculous
as it seems, isn’t this exactly
what we’re doing. People that
rose to prominence did so
through adversity and struggle,
and are deserving of any
position they hold. We must
fi x the educational divide, so
every child is given the education
and the opportunity
to fl ourish in this country.
We must give our youth the
tools to achieve the American
dream. Some people are
caught in the quagmire of a
bad education and poverty,
and the American dream is
being stolen from them. This
is the reason used to foster
programs like affi rmative action.
By instituting these programs
we admit that Black
Americans are at a disadvantage
because of poverty,
lack of education and past
practices (racial discrimination).
How long will it take
our elected offi cials to fi x the
root causes and not just put
temporary bandages on the
problems so that race or ethnicity
is not mentioned in hiring
practices. Only when that
happens will we be judged by
the content of our character,
rather than the color of our
skin.
CIVIC CENTER
Morris Park Civic
Association
link
/Innovation.org
link