Judging Freedom - NY Bail Laws - Keeping us Safe_

Episode Date: July 27, 2022

Mayor Eric Adams calls New York a laughingstock over bail laws https://www.fox5ny.com/news/mayor-eri... #NYC #Crime #subwaySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This new year, why not let Audible expand your life by listening? Audible CA contains over 890,000 total titles within its current library, including audiobooks, podcasts, and exclusive Audible Originals that'll inspire and motivate you. Tap into your well-being with advice and insight from leading professionals and experts on better health, relationships, career, finance, investing, and more. Maybe you want to kick a bad habit or start a good one. If you're looking to encourage positive change in your life one day and challenge at a time, look no further than Tabitha Brown's I Did a New Thing, 30 Days to Living Free. In the audiobook, Tab shares her own stories and those of others alongside

gentle guidance and encouragement to create these incredible changes for yourself and see what good can come from them. Trust me, listening on Audible can help you reach the goals you set for yourself. Start listening today when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com slash wonderyca. That's audible.com slash wonderyca. That's audible.com slash wonderyca. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, July 27, 2022. It's about 945 in the morning here on the east coast of the United States. A local issue has been bubbling up here in the New York City area for the past couple of days.

The other day we ran a clip of a police officer in a fight with a 16-year-old. The 16-year-old had jumped the turnstile, meaning he tried to get on a New York City subway for free, which is effectively theft of services, and the police attempted to arrest him, and the cop got a pretty good beating from this 16-year-old. The event by itself is hardly newsworthy. I'm sorry to say these things happen all the time in New York. However, the fact that this particular person was out on bail within a couple of hours is newsworthy. And then it turns out, of course, that he has a substantial criminal record. The bail laws in New York, the laws that govern the discretion of judges when they set bail, are just horrible. They remove the discretion from the judge.

I've set bail in thousands of cases. Sometimes you have about 60 seconds. Sometimes you have a little bit longer. But basically, you look at the person's background. You look at their criminal record, if any. You look at where they live and with whom they live and if they have roots in the community. You look and see if they're employed. You look and see if they're supporting anyone. All of this is to determine are they worthy of being set free because there is a serious allegation against them or are they likely to flee? The state of New York has taken that discretion away from judges and basically said unless it's a crime of violence which means breaking the skin,

breaking a bone, or impairing an organ of another person. Unless it's a crime of violence, set them free. This is a violent confrontation. We can't run the clip for you again because one of the platforms on which Judging Freedom is located banned us from doing that. But it's a fight between a cop and a 16-year-old. It lasts about a minute. We ran seven seconds of it the other day. When this guy got out on bail, on no bail, when the judge let him walk out of the courtroom because the judge's hands were tied by this Andrew Cuomo era law. Here's what Mayor Adams of New York had to say. Bear in mind, he is a former New York City police officer.

He retired at the rank of captain. Here's the mayor. July 20, he's arrested for robbery. Now he's back, decides he's not going to pay his fare. In response, we saw in the video what happened. We're saying, listen, re-examining the bail laws in the area of violent offenders. How do we keep our city safe when the other parts of the criminal justice system, they have abandoned our public safety apparatus? Well, he's right about the bail laws have abandoned the public safety apparatus. In fact, Mayor, it's very nicely put. But what he's failing to tell you is he's a Democrat. Andrew Cuomo is a Democrat. The legislature that did this is controlled by Democrat supermajorities, meaning more than two-thirds

in both houses of the legislature. And the governor's a Democrat. And the governor just said, we're not going to change the bail laws. So it's the Democratic dominance in the state of New York has impeded public safety materially. I'm not saying that everybody should be given a bail that they can't be required. But I am saying that judges should have discretion to use their knowledge of the law and their intuition. Judges are not robots. They should have the discretion to determine, is this person a danger to society? Am I going to see him again? And the exercise of that discretion would minimize the repeat offender nature of what we keep seeing over and over and over again. And to define violence as having to break the skin or break a bone or a parent organ is absurd. These two guys had a fight. They were punching each other. They landed blows on the face and the chest of each other. They wrestled on the ground on a cold stone floor of

a subway station in New York City while onlookers watched and somebody taped it. If that wasn't an act of violence, Mayor, I don't know what was. So I blame the mayor for not calling out his Democratic colleagues, and I blame the governor and the Democrats who run New York by taking away judges' discretion and making the city less safe than it once was. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.