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ENTIRE TRI-STATE
Law vs. order
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
Tensions are fl aring amid
Kings County law enforcement,
as police brass
blame District Attorney
Eric Gonzalez for an uptick
in gun violence in
some parts of the borough
— despite a Brooklyn-wide
decrease over last year.
The fuse ignited at a
Manhattan press conference
on July 8, when Chief
of Department Terence
Monahan blamed Gonzalez
for failing to keep gunmen
locked up.
“We’re getting the guns
off the street. We’re upping
gun arrests. What we
need is that after that gun
arrest is made, that person
stays in jail,” he said.
“When we look at Brooklyn
— for the gun prosecutions
— it has the least
amount of time of any of
the boroughs in the city,
per gun conviction.”
According to Monahan,
shootings in Brooklyn
North — a designation
that includes Crown
Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant,
and East New York,
among others — have increased
from 79 to 101
year-to-date.
And the chief aimed
his criticism specifi cally
at the Brooklyn prosecutor’s
youth diversion program,
where offenders between
the ages of 14 to 22
who plead guilty to weapons
possession charges
can partake in a 18- to 24-
month educational program
as an alternative to
incarceration.
“This year out of 158
guilty pleas on gun indictments,
30 percent — or 47
cases — will be dismissed
or sealed due to a diversion
program,” he said. “I
don’t believe that 30 percent
of every gun arrest,
where a cop puts his life
on the line to take a gun
off the street, should have
their case sealed.”
Monahan gave two examples
where police were
forced to arrest convicts
enrolled in the DA’s diversion
program on subsequent
fi rearms charges.
“Two of the individuals
who were put into the
program were re-arrested
shortly thereafter with
guns,” he said.
A spokesman for the
District Attorney’s offi ce
disputed Monahan’s statistics,
and said they’ve accepted
429 gun-possession
guilty pleas since 2018,
with only 11 percent — or
55 cases — resulting in defendants
being admitted to
the diversion program.
The program has been
linked to an improvement
in public safety, according
to a spokesman, who
noted a direct correlation
between enrollment
in the
DA’s diversion
course and
the borough’s
safest year on
record.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez is fueding
with Police Department brass over his jaildiversion
program. Photo by Caroline Ourso
“The program has
been utilized by the Brooklyn
DA’s Offi ce for over
a decade, corresponding
with a steady decline in
shootings, which reached
a historical low in 2017, the
year with the most diversion
admissions to date,”
he said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio
weighed into the discussion
on Monday, siding
with the Police Department’s
concerns about the
diversion program for gun
convictions.
“It’s been an ongoing
conversation with district
attorneys since the beginning
of this administration
— we need them to be
resolute in gun prosecutions,”
de Blasio said. “I
agree with Chief Monahan.
The men and women
of the NYPD put their lives
on the line, and they get
these guns off the streets.
It’s supposed to mean
something.”
The Mayor noted his
support for criminal justice
reform, but took exception
with reducing sentences
for those guilty of
weapons possession.
“We should not confuse
the goal of diversion
— which, for nonviolent
offences is a valuable tool
that has allowed us to reduce
our jail population
and help people get back
on the right track,” said de
Blaiso. “But when a gun
is in the equation... it’s a
whole different ball game.
When there’s a gun, there
should be follow through
by prosecutors.”
The DA’s spokesman
hit back, arguing that the
program — which applies
only to those guilty
of possessing,
but not using, a
fi rearm — allowed
Brooklyn
youth to
avoid a future
li fe-of-crime
that awaits
many ex-inmates.
The DA’s offi
ce also pointed
out that the program
is applied
borough wide
— where shootings
have decreased from
143 to 141 year-to-date — as
evidence that Monahan’s
attempt to link the uptick
in shootings in Brooklyn
North to the diversion program
were counterfactual.
Rather than spend their
time criticizing the program,
the District Attorney’s
offi ce said the Police
Department should focus
on closing open cases.
“The real problem isn’t
diversion, but the fact that
approximately 67 percent
of shootings and homicides
in Brooklyn North
remain unsolved, leaving
violent individuals on the
streets,” said the spokesman.
And, despite objections
from Monahan and the
Mayor, Gonazalez’s offi ce
plans to grow the program
further.
“Given this record of
success and enhanced public
safety, we are investing
resources on expanding
and improving this program,”
a spokesman said.
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