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COURIER L 10 IFE, JULY 19-25, 2019 PS
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
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez is fueding
with Police Department brass over his jaildiversion
program. Photo by Caroline Ourso
— 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.
“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 life-ofcrime
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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