16 THE COURIER SUN • MARCH 16, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM editorial SNOWY CHURCH IN BAYSIDE// PHOTO BY ROBERT POZARYCKI Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! To submit them to us tag @queenscourier on Instagram, visit our Facebook page, tweet @QNS or email [email protected] (subject: Queens Snaps). Requiem for a champion of the law The most fierce federal prosecutor in New York State history was fired last weekend, and it should give pause to everyone who wants the law upheld and the government free of corrupt hacks. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara brought down some of the worst crooks in Albany; party allegiance didn’t matter to him. Democrat or Republican, if he found out that you broke the law, off to the slammer you went. On March 10, the Trump administration told Bharara and 45 other U.S. attorneys to resign. Bharara publicly refused that order, and was fired the next day. Presidents make changes to federal prosecutors’ offices all the time, but the way in which Bharara and the other U.S. attorneys were let go this past weekend stinks. Their departures were immediate; there will be no transition from one prosecutor to the next. Beyond that, it broke a promise that this president gave Bharara early on that he would remain as federal prosecutor — yet another broken promise on an ever-growing pile of them accumulating on the White House front lawn. It is a fact that President Obama was the one who appointed Bharara as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. It is also a fact, however, that Bharara executed the duties of that office in a truly fair and outstanding manner. This is the man who sent two of the state’s biggest power brokers — Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Republican state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos — to jail after busting their respective pay-to-play scams. Locally, Bharara also sent to jail former Queens state Senator Malcolm Smith for trying to buy his way onto the Republican Party’s mayoral ticket, and former Councilman Dan Halloran for conspiring with that effort and for accepting kickbacks from individuals involved with city government. He locked up former state Senator Hiram Monserrate for embezzling City Council funds for his own political campaign and former Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio for accepting bribes. Bharara made a profound impact in cleaning up state and city government, while also sending the message that public corruption won’t be tolerated at any level. His dismissal from the post sends a terrible message of its own: that such good work won’t be allowed to proceed if you belong to a party different than the president’s. We wish Bharara well, and we wish that his replacement is as steadfast and as independent in carrying out the duties of the office; in fighting corruption at every level; and in protecting the people of New York from charlatans and crooks. STORY: ‘I cannot believe I did this’: Mom sends son to school in Whitestone with her box of heroin SUMMARY: In a massive mix-up, a mom in Broad Channel sent her 6-year-old son to his Whitestone school with her stash of heroin in his backpack. REACH: 27,223 people (as of March 13, 2017) sun WWW.COURIERSUN.COM Victoria Schneps-Yunis Joshua A. Schneps Bob Brennan Robert Pozarycki Amy Amato-Sanchez Nirmal Singh Ron Torina Emily Davenport Katrina Medoff, Anthony Giudice, Angela Matua, Suzanne Monteverdi Cliff Kasd en, Samantha Sohmer, Elizabeth Aloni Dylan Frand Deborah Cusick Warren Susman Celeste Alamin Maria Valencia Victoria Schneps-Yunis Joshua A. Schneps Publisher & E ditor Co-Publisher Associate Publisher Editor-In-Chief VP, Events, Web & Social Media Art Director Artist Social Media Manager Staff Reporters Contributing Reporters Events Coordinator Assistant to Publisher Senior Acount Executive Classified Manager Controller President & CEO Vice President Schneps Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361 718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441 www.qns.com editorial e-mail: [email protected] for advertising e-mail: [email protected] Entire Contents Copyright 2017 by The Courier Sun All letters sent to THE COURIER SUN should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available, as well as affiliation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE COURIER SUN. 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