Opinion

Cuomo, de Blasio see the light on the lunatic new bail law

Hey, have you heard the one about the two blind hogs who found the same acorn — at the same time?

Mayor Bill de Blasio, say hello to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Clearly New York’s ultra-progressive chief executives have arrived at the same place on the state’s absurd new arrest-and-release bail law: Scorched in the press, they now say change definitely is in order.

“There’s no doubt that this is a work in progress,” says the governor who proudly signed the bail bill into law. “Changing the system is complicated.”

De Blasio took a more direct approach last week, standing the new law on its head to ­remove an alleged violent anti-Semite from the streets.

And while it seems that he acted mostly from fear of bad publicity, let’s hear a hearty one cheer for the Big Apple’s lovable lug of a former presidential candidate anyway.





Now the mayor says he will help fix the law itself: “We are going to go to Albany once again asking the Legislature to improve that bill.”

Well, maybe. He has a pretty short attention span.

But there is no doubt that drastic change is necessary ­before somebody gets killed — a likely progression now that bail has been abolished for all misdemeanor charges and judges have lost critical discretion in isolating dangerous defendants.

The Post reported Monday that de Blasio had convinced the state Office of Court ­Administration that revolving-door defendant Tiffany Harris — repeatedly arrested and ­released last month on misdemeanor assault and related ­offenses allegedly aimed at Jews — was too unstable to be on the streets unsupervised.

“We spoke with [OCA] after Ms. Harris’ assessment was left incomplete to determine next steps and discuss how to handle situations like this in the ­future,” said an administration press aide.





Rough translation: The lady threatened our political comfort zone and she isn’t the only one out there like that. So the mayor acted. And now he says he will act some more. Cuomo, too. Good for them.

The crisis is hardly a surprise, of course. NYPD brass have been warning of the new arrest-and-release law for weeks, and even a progressive district attorney like Albany County’s David Soares is vocally opposed to it.

And as disturbing as the bail changes seem, worse is on the way: Revisions in discovery procedure mean that defendants now free on no-bail will be told where key witnesses against them live; it takes little imagination to see where that will lead: Look for witness shortages, one way or another.





For certain, none of this is going to make for safer streets. Quite the contrary, and especially not in largely minority neighborhoods, where most violent crime occurs and where most victims live. This is ironic, given that the premise of the reform was to buffer minority New Yorkers against a supposedly unfair justice system.

Happily, the 2020 legislative session begins Wednesday, and with it arrives an opportunity to revisit the issue.

This won’t be easy, of course. The Legislature prides itself on its progressive, um, “principles” — an alien notion for Albany, to be sure, but nevertheless a factor in this discussion.

This is where de Blasio could play a role, maybe embarrassing Cuomo into doing something he hates, which is change policies in public. Surely Hizzoner could make the same case before the Legislature that his lawyers ­effectively made to the Office of Court Administration regarding Harris just last week.





Which is that true justice is impossible without a fair measure of judicial discretion — and that when a law is seen to be ­irrational it either won’t be obeyed or it will be construed in such a way that when justice is served, it is largely by accident. Neither phenomenon is a good sign for civilization.

Isn’t this precisely what happened in New York City last week? The first time the new law got a serious test — in the process threatening to embarrass the political class — it was subverted.

So why not just change the law? And who is better situated, or more motivated, to carry that case than a fellow so obviously sensitive to its political consequences?

And, in that respect, de Blasio and Cuomo finally have something in common.

So off to Albany with you, Bill. No doubt Andrew will be ­delighted to have you.

Twitter: @RLMac2





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