Ahhhh, New York, New York.

WTF?  Sorry, no politics, I get it, but this is getting a tad out of hand.

King Cuomo (the Governor) proclaimed he would make NY the most progressive state in the union, then implemented the Catch & Release Program.  Some County Judges will take the hit and censure for ignoring it.  But wait, there's more!

He just signed a law governing the use of animals in Rodeos.  No bull riding, bronco bustin' or calf roping.  Try that left of the Mississippi and I believe there's gonna be a lynching.

Buckle up kids, he wants to be Pres when Trump is out.

OK, rant off.  Mods go ahead and delete this inappropriate thread and spank me accordingly.

What about the part where the local police are cut off from DMV/MVA records if they (the local) police work with Border/ Fed/ICE officers? Sound like the Governor is putting local  police in danger for no reason.   

I'm in before the lock. 

Try living here. Yeesh. 

Another great one is that he wanted to get these snowmobile trails up through the Adirondacks, but there is the Adirondack Scenic Railroad's tracks in the way. So he told them they had to tear up their tracks. They said no, took it to the state Supreme Court and the state ruled in the railroad's favor. They said the trail plan did not meet the rules of travel corridors and the Adirondack State Land Master Plan, as well as snowmobilers already having plenty of land and the railroad being a successful thriving business. Well, that had old Andy spitting nails, so he went and had the Adirondack State Land Master Plan revised so that his plan was legal and ramrodded it through.

Or how the state spent millions of taxpayer dollars on building a film studio in Onondaga County, with him crowing that New York would be the next Hollywood. And then, crickets. No film company ever used it. And after a couple years sold it Onondaga County for $1. 

The law that let illegal immigrants get driver's licenses met some serious backlash as well.

And the state troopers and sheriffs are trying to get that Catch & Release repealed. Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol has been furious about it. He said one night they pulled a guy over for drunk driving, had to release him under the new law, and then the next night the guy was driving drunk again and hit a car and injured the driver. The whole thing is a waste of their time and resources, as then the people aren't showing up for court dates and they're having to take the time to hunt them back down and drag them in, or in the meantime the people go and commit more crimes.

I could go on and on.

And I agree, he's definitely been gearing up for a run at President, and I'm a little shocked that he didn't go for it this year.

From the first article:

Unfortunately, Cuomo appears determined to impose his own personal beliefs and political bias upon the good people of New York State

Wow, about a politician? Groundbreaking journalism!!!

Gotta let the things you can't control roll. Control the things you can.

And since we're sharing, here's my flounder. Homer, AK, 1990.

Sounds like the citizens need to hire a lobbyist firm

In reply to 914Driver :

Oh I'm going to get banned for this.....

I think it needs to be pointed out that cash bail is extraordinarily regressive. Just because you are arrested does not mean that you are automatically guilty. Keeping people in prison, simply because they don't have the means to pay to get out, causes lifelong issues.

• It exposes them to violence within the prison system (which are notoriously violent places.)
• It deprives them of a means to support themselves and their families because they cannot work.
• It deprives them of a support system to challenge the charges. (Ever try to visit someone in prison?)

All on the assumption of guilt, not on the actual conviction. This is completely contrary to what our system is supposedly represents.

Secondly. The rich can already get out of prison by posting bail. Just look at Michael Cohen posting millions of dollars worth of bail to go have Christmas with is family at his estate. Poorer people often can't afford 500 - 1000 dollars worth of bail and it traps them in a violent system for months to years in some cases.

Thirdly it's for non-violent misdemeanors and felonies. There's no reason to think someone picked up for leaving the scene of an accident or stealing clothes is going to go out and murder someone or use it as an excuse to commit further crimes.

Lastly, so far the evidence that individuals released on their own recognizance go on to commit further crimes at some sort of exponentially higher rate is pretty slim. There are some outliers of course, that can happen even if they post bail, those are the ones that the media latches onto. Not the success stories. In fact a few studies have shown that 86% of individuals released on their own recognizance in NY have shown up for ALL of their pre trial hearings and court dates compared to 75% nationally.

Meanwhile they have the opportunity support their family, get better legal counsel, and are not exposed to the extreme violence in prisons.

Anyone remember when the media used to talk about how prisons would no longer be needed before Nixon? It's an interesting read.

Okay I'm out.

NickD said:

And I agree, he's definitely been gearing up for a run at President, and I'm a little shocked that he didn't go for it this year.

Speaking strictly analytically, Cuomo is many things, among them a fairly astute politician. All the evidence I've seen suggests that he saw a crowded field going into 2020, realized it would cost more money than he had and could reasonably raise in that environment, and he opted out. He's building a CV of progressive left achievements on the premise that the party is moving that way; I suspect he also expects a Democratic loss in 2020 and a redoubling of support for the left wing going into 2024. It's a very calculated approach, one that is fully in keeping with his entire political career.

Floating Doc said:

And since we're sharing, here's my flounder. Homer, AK, 1990.

That's a halibut, it's much larger than a flounder...

Loved going to Jackson Heights for the biryani. 

Interesting.  Discussion of rodeo animal banning is ok.  My post about dead children got an immediate lock.

In reply to The0retical :

I agree with the points you made about how it should work, The issue with how it was done here from what I've read is that they didn't leave the judges with discretion to hold people that have been violent except on some more extreme charges.  This has lead to a number of cases where people have been released to assault multiple victims or judges ordering people held for medical reasons to keep them off the street.  Reform was very much needed but it needs some work having gone from on extreme to the next.

Unrelated Flounderish Photo

IN B4 LOCK WOOO

In reply to Wally :

Unfortunately, we are now entering a "flavor" of populism in our politics- the screaming heads will only increase, no matter how needed or nessesary some of these ideas are. And that means, it's gonna be real hard for the next few years to have genuine prison (or any) reform without the next person throwing a wrench at the entire idea, unless people seriously begin to demand better of their "elected officials". Otherwise, I compeltely agree with The0retical when it comes to the system right now- it's shuddering and it's only a matter of time before something drastic has to be done.

Cumo's pulling the same thing as Romney; doing a little bit to appeal to a base he's not apart of hoping they don't look too deep at his past and vote for him all the same.

In reply to Wally :

I want to be careful here because some of what I'm going to say isn't backed by a study, yet.

The reform seems drastic. I can't argue that, but it's something that abolitionists and reformers have been working up to for decades. It's the same with any other movement that seems to just explode onto the scene. The groundwork was laid long ago, just no one paid attention until it reached critical mass.

*(This is the part I don't have a study for)* I will argue that it was completely necessary to place limits on judges discretion. State judges are elected officials, as such they have a self interest in getting re-elected. This almost always ends up with them speaking about their record and how "tough on crime" they are to appeal to the baser instincts of the electorate. That often means cash bail because "even if there's a small chance, it's still a chance" despite what it does to those who are incarcerated. The media does not help with this either as they latch onto crime narratives as entertainment and just love invoking Willie Hortanism while ignoring that Reagan had the same thing happen under him, twice, while governor of California and continued with the program. (Edit: For the record WAPO says 6/2500 furloughs didn't return in 1988, or .24%)

Everyone wants safety and security, but cash bail, over the course of its life has not shown that it really does make the populace at large safer. It does however drastically increase the prison population which has significant societal costs as well as significant state budgetary effects. I've seen numbers like 20 percent of people in the United States currently incarcerated, and 76 percent of those in local jails, have not been found guilty of any crime put out there. That's pretty horrifying and directly related to cash bail.

If evidence bears out that certain crimes have a greater chance of violence occurring when the accused is released I can see adding a one off exception for discretion by the judge. At the moment however, we don't have that. What we do have is a system which disproportionately incarnates people based on their financial means.

In general crime has been decreasing across the country for decades, and drastically drops off after the age of 35. There's studies and data to back that assertion up. I don't really see a reason to keep up the tough on crime act.

Off with their heads!

New York... HAH!

You can never catch us in CA, we are WAY ahead of you!!!!!

Oh boy. 

aircooled said:

New York... HAH!

You can never catch us in CA, we are WAY ahead of you!!!!!

Braggart