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Court Ruling Could Reinstate
WFP Candidates on Ballot
NYPD reports 30% crime surge in April
A crime scene in the Bronx. Photo by Dean Moses
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M BTR AY 7-13, 2021 15
BY CLARISSA SOSIN
The fate of Working Families
Party (WFP) candidates
knocked off the June ballot in
New York City is still up in the
air after a ruling made by an
upstate judge on Friday.
Onondaga County Supreme
Court Judge Scott J. Delconte
ruled in favor of WFP last
week after Republicans in 15
counties upstate and in Long
Island sued to get their candidates
kicked off the ballot for a
technicality.
The Republicans objected
to the WFP use of a remote notary
and electronic signatures
on a required form, called a
Wilson-Pakula, that gives candidates
who aren’t members
of the party permission to run
on the party line. They argued
that the forms were invalid, or
even fraudulent because they
did not have “wet” or original
signatures.
Delconte dismissed the Republican
claims and ruled that
WFP did not violate election
law by using remote notaries
and electronic signatures. That
decision could affect the fate of
the WFP candidates in New
York City who were kicked off
the June primary ballots for
the same technicality.
Last month, the New York
City Board of Elections disqualifi
ed nearly every single
candidate put forward by WFP
because they said the party did
not use original signatures on
their Wilson-Pakulas. Among
these were WFP star candidates
Brad Lander for Comptroller,
Jumaane Williams for
re-election as Public Advocate
and Tiffany Cabán.
Sharon Cromwell, Deputy
State Director of the New York
Working Families Party, said
that she hopes the BOE takes
the judge’s ruling into consideration
and reverses their decision.
Currently, she said,
they are in opposition to the
law and to the ruling.
“That should be accepted
by boards of elections,” Cromwell
said about the Supreme
Court ruling. “They decided
to dismiss the Wilson-Pakula
before the lawsuit was decided.”
The technicality resulted
from different interpretations
of an executive order issued
by Governor Andrew Cuomo
at the start of the pandemic in
March last year. The order allows
for documents to be notarized
remotely by notary
publics and for documents
allowed under the Electronic
Signatures and Records Act to
be signed with electronic signatures.
The BOE has not yet said
whether they would be reconsidering
their decision to knock
the WFP candidates off the ballot
based on the judgment.
From left are Tiffany Caban, Jumaane Williams and Brad Lander.
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
Crime made some major spikes in
New York City last month, statistics
from the NYPD revealed.
Overall, crime rates throughout the
fi ve boroughs increased 30.4% yearover
year in April 2021. With the exception
of burglaries, which saw a 26%
decrease with 855 crimes compared
to April 2020’s 1,155 crimes, each area
of major crimes saw increases last
month
“The NYPD is relentless in its mission
to maintain public safety for all
New Yorkers,” said Police Commissioner
Dermot Shea. “The selfl ess
work our offi cers carry out – day after
day, night after night – is one important
part of the entire criminal justice
system’s process, a process where all
pieces must work together to be wholly
effective.”
One major difference in the crime
fi gures is due in part to the state of the
city between April 2020 — in which
most New Yorkers stayed home due to
the height of the COVID-19 pandemic
— and this past April, which saw continued
increases in social activity.
According to the statistics, the
overall spike was primarily driven by
the number of grand larcenies, which
saw a 66.1% jump from 1,601 crimes in
April 2020 to 2,659 crimes in April 2021.
The next driver of the spike was the
felony assault count, which increased
from 1,202 crimes in April 2020 to 1,630
in April 2021, a 35.6% spike year-overyear.
Incidents of auto theft increased
from 558 in April 2020 to 749 in April
2021, a 34.2% increase, while robberies
saw a 28.6% increase compared to
April 2020 (885 last month compared to
688 in 2020). The number of rape cases
increased from 72 last year to 110 in
April 2021, a 52.8% increase — however,
the NYPD acknowledges that
rape continues to be underreported.
The number of murders last month
increased year-over-over from 38 in
April 2020 to 44, a 15.8% change. Despite
this, the number of shooting incidents
saw a huge uptick last month
with 149 compared to 56 in April 2020, a
166.1% increase year-over-year.
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