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ALSO COVERING ELMHURST, JACKSON HEIGHTS, LONG ISLAND CITY, MASPETH, MIDDLE VILLAGE, REGO PARK, SUNNYSIDE
July 17-23, 2020
PROTESTERS DEMAND QUEENS DA KEEP
PROMISES MADE ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL
BY BILL PARRY
Three months to the day
after 63-year-old Ozone Park
resident Walter Ance died
of COVID-19, which he contracted
while behind bars
on Rikers Island, dozens of
protestors rallied outside the
Queens Criminal Courthouse
in Kew Gardens Monday in
order to publicly shame District
Attorney Melinda Katz
for not fulfilling her campaign
promises.
Ance had been held without
bail for more than a year for allegedly
stabbing his wife and
The Legal Aid Society argued
for his release saying he was at
high risk due to diabetes and
prostate issues. Katz declined
his release at the height of the
COVID-19 crisis.
“Social distancing is impossible
inside Rikers Island,
and saving human beings’
lives should be our top priority
during a pandemic,” Policy &
Strategy Vice President Kandra
Clark said. “As a community
that believes in the power
of personal transformation,
individuals and community
healing and using restorative
justice approaches to mitigate
conflict, Exodus Transitional
Community calls on Melinda
Katz to keep the promises
she made, to move away from
Protesters demanded that Queens DA Melinda Katz honor the promises she made on the campaign
trail. Photos by Dean Moses
mass incarceration, and to operate
with fairness. Our communities
and organizations
like Exodus have created other
ways to deliver true justice
and safety for our communities,
but DAs like Melinda Katz
have kept choosing incarceration.
After decades we finally
have a new DA in Queens, but
still too many of our fellow
New Yorkers are suffering on
Rikers Island.”
Protesters held signs citing
pledges the group feels she
has not fulfilled, along with
a photo depicting Katz as Pinocchio.
They called on the
Queens DA to stop utilizing
cash bail to hold people in jail,
to consent to release as many
people as possible to help stop
the spread of COVID-19 inside
the walls of the Rikers Island
prison complex and to stop opposing
the release from prison
of people wrongly convicted
by her predecessor, the late
Richard Brown.
“No one should die in jail
or prison. We need to focus
on building communities and
stop using jail and bail as an
excuse for public safety,” Just
Leadership USA Member-
Leader Peggy Herrera said.
“We can’t arrest or incarcerate
our way out of the challenges
that face our communities.
Mental health, homelessness
and poverty are not crimes!
Neither is a mother who calls
for help for her son who suffers
from mental health issues.
Low-level offenses do not
deserve to end in a death sentence,
and people should not
have to sit in jail because they
can’t afford bail or take a plea
in order to be released. Rikers
Island only adds more trauma.
Melinda Katz, Queens needs to
do better.”
Katz countered saying
when she took office on Jan.
1, she made significant policy
changes to reduce the population
in city jails and that she
is committed to “ultimately
ending cash bail because
a person’s financial status
should not be a factor” in
whether they are incarcerated
pre-trial.
“As a result, over 70 percent
of those charged with bail
qualifying offenses have been
released either on their own
recognizance or with supervision,”
Katz said. “Since my
first day as district attorney,
the number of individuals in
jail on a Queens County case
has been reduced roughly in
half.”
Katz added that since the
COVID-19 pandemic hit the
city she has worked daily
with the mayor’s office, the
courts, public defenders and
defense attorneys to “prioritize
and expedite the release
of the most vulnerable,” and
that her office actively pursued
dispositions and modified
sentences to effectuate
early releases.
Read more on QNS.com.
Vol. 8 No. 29 32 total pages
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