WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES NOVEMBER 14, 2019 13
LETTERS AND COMMENTS
MAKE SURE TO
CELEBRATE
NATIONAL
BAKLAVA DAY!
Why not celebrate National Baklava
Day (Saturday, Nov. 17) all year long?
Top off your lunch or dinner with
something sweet for dessert and
order a piece of baklava at the end
of the meal at your favorite Greek
Restaurant.
Baklava consists of 30 or more
sheets of phyllo dough brushed with
lots of butter, and layered with fi nely
chopped pistachios, walnuts, and/or
almonds.
Who better than the Greeks to make
this tasty treat?
Our favorite Greek Restaurant for
baklava is Fontana Famous Pizza &
Gyro on the corner of Northern Boulevard
and Francis Lewis Boulevard
in Bayside.
A slice of their baklava will put a
smile on your face. Just don’t get up
and start dancing to block the aisle!
Opa!
Larry Penner,
Great Neck
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OP-ED
New criminal justice
laws could hurt NYC
BY RICHARD “BO” DIETL
New Yorkers are weeks away
from sweeping changes to our
criminal justice system. A series
of laws passed by the state Legislature
will take eff ect Jan. 1, 2020.
The legislation concerns bail reform
and new requirements related to the
collection of evidence and the
process of a speedy trial.
These laws will vastly and
widely impact law enforcement
and crime in
New York, and not for
the better.
While well intentioned,
these measures
will make New York City
revert to the dire state of
the 1970s, which some of
us personally remember and
some may associate with the 1979
fi lm “The Warriors.”
From a public safety perspective,
the new laws are a nightmare. Allowing
criminals to be free and roaming
the streets will only accelerate crime
and send NYC back to the “bad old days”
when lawlessness was rampant.
I worked the streets as a detective
when the city regularly saw thousands
of homicides per year. In the 35 years
since I’ve been retired, I am glad that
crime has gone down signifi cantly and
the city has become one of the safest
large cities on the planet. Politicians are
making laws that can reverse decades
of progress.
I certainly agree with the spirit
of criminal justice reform and have
personally supported bail reform.
Thousands of people get entangled in
the system, which can be unfair and
cruel at points.
For instance, a teenager with no
prior record who gets arrested for a
small amount of marijuana possession
shouldn’t be sent to Rikers Island
for months just because he can’t aff ord
bail. However, these reforms will have
severe unintended consequences that
politicians are too short-sighted to
think through properly.
The kind of bail reform presented
here will put serious off enders on the
street while awaiting trial. Bail will
be eliminated all misdemeanors, most
nonviolent felonies, including Class
A drug felonies and even certain burglary
and robbery charges. Even some
homicide charges can have bail waived
under these changes.
The NYPD will be forced to issue Desk
Appearance Tickets (DAT) to people
they arrest for all misdemeanors and
many felonies, essentially crippling all
enforcement. Under the new rules, it’s
entirely possible for a person to be arrested
for a robbery, get it downgraded
to grand larceny and released without
bail, then later in the same day commit
another grand larceny, get another
DAT, and be out in time to commit more
crimes before supper. It may sound
ridiculous but under these new
farcical regulations, it could
really happen.
Even more alarming are
the potential eff ects of the
new discovery requirements.
Witnesses and
crime victims’ names
and home addresses will
be released to defendants
as soon as possible, within
15 days. Police and prosecutors
already have a diffi cult
job convincing witnesses and
victims to come forward, under the
new paradigm the task will be nearly
Sisyphean. Detectives will now have
to warn witnesses and victims that
their attackers may be on the street
and have their name and contact
information while awaiting trial.
Undoubtedly this will discourage
already scared and traumatized
individuals from cooperating with
investigations.
The current anti-police climate in the
city has already contributed to lowering
the morale among members of the
NYPD. I speak to cops every day, and
many of them tell me they are hesitant
to act in the line of duty because they
know city politicians and the top brass
that report to them won’t have their
back in the event of a complaint. Police
have always been ready to risk their
lives for service, but now they risk their
reputation and livelihood just by doing
their jobs.
These new laws were passed for
entirely political purposes and without
regard for the safety of our city’s
population. They were craft ed without
proper input or consultation by the police
department and prosecutors. Such
drastic changes will radically alter the
criminal justice system on every level
and create far reaching consequences.
The city is entirely unprepared for
these imminent changes, which is a
very scary thought. I hope the governor
reconsiders these actions.
Richard “Bo” Dietl was a New York City
police offi cer, a detective for 16 years, and
was a candidate for New York City mayor
in 2017.
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