22 THE QUEENS COURIER • DECEMBER 6, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Katz launches campaign for DA race
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@cnglocal.com
@QNS
Borough President Melinda Katz offi -
cially launched her campaign for Queens
District Attorney against Councilman
Rory Lancman and retired Judge
Gregory Lasak on Tuesday morning at
MacDonald Park in Forest Hills.
Th e news conference addressed topics
of inequality in the justice system such
as ending cash bail and treating gun violence
as a public health issue as well as
preventing recidivism.
“For far too long our system has
allowed the wealthy to pay for freedom
while the poor who posed no danger
just sit in jail,” Katz said. “We must end
the practice of cash bail because the system
penalizes poverty ... and has been
extremely detrimental to communities of
color. It requires ending prosecution for
low-level marijuana arrests, it requires
knowing that gun violence needs a public
health response.”
Katz pledged to take an aggressive
approach to the district attorney’s offi ce,
if elected. According to the campaign,
she would seek a “hard on hate” vigorous
enforcement of hate crime laws; a
more vigorous prosecution of rape, sexual
assault and domestic and gender-based
violence; fi ghting for worksite accountability
and worker protections; and protecting
elders from abuse.
Aft er graduating from St. John’s School
of Law, Katz was an associate at a law
fi rm before running for State Assembly
and later for City Council.
Her remarks, however, were punctuated
by a lone Amazon protestor who
called attention to Katz’s welcoming attitude
toward the online retail giant choosing
Long Island City as their HQ2.
“Melinda Katz is complicit in the
Democratic Party machine in looting the
taxpayers, giving Amazon $1.5 billion
when our infrastructure is falling apart,”
Adam Wilkes, the single protestor, said.
Wilkes was escorted away from the
news conference by Community Aff airs
offi cers from the 112th Precinct.
Katz has supported Amazon moving
space at Anable Basin for the 25,000 jobs,
half of which an Amazon spokeswoman
claims would not require a tech background,
but on the condition that they
help pay for transportation improvements.
Sitting DA Richard Brown has not offi -
cially thrown his hat into the race for
another re-election.
Brown, 86, has a long record as DA,
having been elected in 1991 and serving
as a member of the New York Judiciary
for 18 years before that.
“I welcome Borough President Katz
to the growing fi eld of career politicians
running for District Attorney,”
Lasak said. “As the only non-politician
in this race, I look forward to putting my
decades-long record of fi ghting crime
and freeing the innocent up against anyone
else’s.”
Katz was re-elected as borough president
in 2017, and with the DA’s seat coming
up for election in 2019, could leave
Borough Hall two years early should she
be the voter’s choice of top prosecutor.
If Katz wins, a special election would
be declared by Mayor Bill de Blasio within
45 days; the deputy borough president
would serve in the interim period
if a vacancy occurs in the borough president’s
offi ce.
Lancman made his offi cial announcement
for DA in September also planning
to make a “real transformative change in
Queens.”
Women’s rights pioneer in Queens backs Lancman for DA
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@cnglocal.com
@QNS
City Councilman Rory Lancman’s campaign
to be the next Queens district attorney
picked up the endorsement of Merle
Hoff man, a pro-choice pioneer and founder
of Choices Women’s Medical Clinic in
Jamaica.
Citing Lancman’s long record of fi ghting
for a woman’s right to control her own
health decisions, Hoff man threw her support
behind Lancman aft er the two worked
hard to defend her clinic and its patients
from a relentless campaign of intimidation.
“With Donald Trump reshaping the
judiciary and using his executive authority
to restrict choice, putting Roe v. Wade
at risk and emboldening anti-choice zealots
like never before, I’m strongly supporting
Rory Lancman to be out next district
attorney,” Hoff man said. “Rory is not only
politically pro-choice, but has demonstrated
time and again his willingness to support
and defend the thousands of women
a year who access reproductive health services,
including abortions, at my clinic in
Jamaica, Queens.”
Hoffman established the Flushing
Women’s Medical Center, one of the fi rst
ambulatory abortion centers in the nation
in 1971, shortly aft er New York State legalized
abortion and two years before the historic
Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.
She later moved her clinic to Jamaica
and renamed it Choices Women’s Medical
Center which is one of the largest and most
comprehensive women’s health center in
the country, serving over 40,000 women
each year.
For nearly half a century, Hoff man has
battled “anti-choice sentiment, zealots and
bigots” and Lancman was the fi rst elected
offi cial to visit Choices and off er to help,
Hoff man said.
Last summer a federal judge ruled in
favor of 13 anti-abortion protestors who
had harassed and allegedly threatened
patients shielded by their escorts entering
Hoff man’s clinic.
Lancman announced his candidacy for
district attorney in September seeking to
replace Richard Brown who has been the
longest-tenured district attorney in New
York City, having served since 1991.
“Merle Hoff man has been a pioneer
fi ghting for women and their right to control
their own bodies, and her leadership
has changed our country for the better —
it is an honor to receive her endorsement,”
Lancman said. “As District Attorney, I
will work hand in hand with Merle and
other women leaders to ensure that no
Queens woman is put in legal jeopardy for
File photo
her reproductive choices, or intimidated
and harassed in surrendering her right to
obtain a safe abortion.”
Photos by Mark Hallum
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