Phil Orenstein

It’s two months into 2022 and crime is out of control. It’s the city’s top issue. According to the recent Quinnipiac College Poll, three-quarters of NYC voters say crime is a very serious problem. All New Yorkers are victims of the progressive policies which have caused a breakdown in law and order. The Bail Reform Law of 2019 is the far left’s progressive legislation passed into law in 2020 that has triggered the surge in crime we read about in horrific bold headlines every day, like the Asian woman recently stabbed to death in her Chinatown apartment by a repeat offender released due to Bail Reform.

Under these reforms, judges can no longer impose cash bail requirement against defendants for nearly 90% of arrests including a good number of felony charges such as armed robbery and resisting arrest. Judges do not have discretion to detain them even if they pose a danger to the community. They are back out on the streets the next day ready to commit new offences. Reportedly, more than half of violent offenders commit new crimes and murder after being freed under Bail Reform Law.

Since Bail Reform went into effect early in 2020, crime has been steadily rising. Criminals are emboldened since they can beat the new lax system without facing jail time.  We’ve seen a surge in shootings, horrific subway shoving incidents, rising attacks on Asians, rampant shoplifting and robberies, and so far in 2022, overall crime is up over 40% from the same period a year ago. Seven NYPD officers have been shot so far in 2022, including the two slain heroic officers, Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera. Nearly every NYPD precinct has seen an increase in crime this year, with two precincts in Queens seeing more than double the crime rate.  

These horrifying statistics stem from the longstanding work of the champion of criminal justice reform, State Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) who sponsored a bill, S2101A, in January 2019, known as the “Bail Elimination Act,” the bill that would completely eliminate cash bail.

The State Senate was unable to pass the bill, which did not make it to a floor vote and died in committee. Some legislators were reluctant to vote for changes to bail laws in a stand-alone bill.  However, Governor Cuomo incorporated Bail Reform into a budget bill, S1509C, as part of the Fiscal Year 2019-2020 NYS budget. Democrat lawmakers claimed they had to accept the budget bill if they also wanted to approve a state aid increase for schools, a property-tax cap, and other measures.

This budget bill provided political cover for Democrat lawmakers to conceal their voting records. They hid their votes for Bail Reform in a budget bill to avoid the wrath of their constituents impacted by the rise in crime, while appeasing the progressive left. Last year, the wrath of the voters came down like a ton of bricks on Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-L.I.), for his support for Bail Reform, losing a heated race for Nassau DA to Republican Anne Donnelly who ran as a “tough on crime” candidate.  

The budget bill with the Bail Elimination Act buried inside, passed in April 2019, and was signed into law by the governor. It went into effect on January 1, 2020, eliminating cash bail for most misdemeanor and non-violent felony charges. The Democrat super-majorities in the NY State Senate and Assembly voted AYE. Democrats passed it, legislating cashless bail laws that set criminals free to threaten our safety. To a man, every Republican voted NAY.

You should know how your representatives voted. Here are the seven Queens Democrat State Senators who voted AYE for the State Senate budget bill S1509C which includes the Bail Elimination Act:

SD-10 James Sanders Jr

SD-11 John Liu

SD-12 Michael Gianaris

SD-13 Jessica Ramos

SD-14 LeRoy Comrie

SD-15 Joseph Addabo Jr

SD-16 Toby Ann Stavisky

The State Assembly then voted on the companion budget bill with the Bail Elimination Act, A2009C, which was adopted as the Senate version, S1509. Here are the Queens Assemblymembers still in office today, all Democrats who voted AYE:

AD-23 Stacey Pheffer Amato

AD-25 Nily Rozic

AD-26 Ed Braunstein

AD-28 Andrew Hevesi

AD-29 Alicia Hyndman

AD-30 Brian Barnwell

AD-32 Vivian Cook

AD-33 Clyde Vanel

AD-35 Jeffrion Aubry

AD-37 Catherine Nolan

AD-39 Catalina Cruz

AD-40 Ron Kim

Please make note of which representatives in your Assembly District (AD) and Senate District (SD) voted AYE on these bills. Once again, in bold headline in the news – the brutal murder of another Asian victim. A homeless career criminal stabbed Christina Yuna Lee to death in her apartment in Chinatown as she was screaming for help. This repeat offender had been rearrested for six crimes in less than a year and was released without bail under Bail Reform, that these Democrat lawmakers voted into law.  ‘Criminal justice reform’ has been the Democrat’s mantra which has mushroomed into soft on crime policies that have become reckless and dangerous laws. We can only stop this with the power of voting.

In order to repeal the Bail Reform Law which let these career criminals run free and commit more crime and murder, we need to vote these representatives out of office in the November elections. We must hold them accountable, just as Democrat Sen. Kaminsky was voted out, and elect “tough on crime” Republicans. This is the only way to stop the escalating crime and murder. Remember voting matters and elections have consequences! Get out and vote Republican in every election!

Here are links to help readers find who their representative is:

Assembly Member Search | New York State Assembly (nyassembly.gov)

Find My Senator | NY State Senate (nysenate.gov)

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Phil Orenstein is the president of the Queens Village Republican Club. Established in 1875, it is America’s oldest Republican Club.  www.QVGOP.org   Club Board of Directors member, Suzanne Chronowitz helped with research and data, and Historian, Jerry Matacotta, founder of History Seminar Series, was advisor for this article.

J6: Truth and Prisoners

by Esther Uriel

The liberal version of what happened on January 6, 2021 is that right-wing insurrectionists attempted to stop the certification of Biden as president by staging an “insurrection.”  As a result of this, many arrests were made of people who had entered the Capitol Building, and many who were merely in Washington attending President Trump’s rally.  Many of those arrested are still being held – held without bail and without trial – in what we learned from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to be utterly deplorable conditions.

But what is the truth?

Unfortunately, the public does not know.  In the month of January 2022, new video footage has been emerging throwing everything into question.  For example, new footage of Ashli Babbit, the woman who was shot to death by Capitol Police officer Michael Byrd, is being interpreted by her husband as showing that she was attempting to stop rioters from entering the building, to call over police for assistance, and that she went through the window to get away from the mob.  Other footage shows a man trying to get protesters to break into the Capitol Building, only to have suspicious protesters start chanting “Fed, fed, fed!”  In Congress, Ted Cruz openly questioned whether there was any FBI involvement in the actions of January 6^th.

At this point, there are more questions than there are answers, and our nation is divided on what it believes occurred.

Yet through all the questions, prisoners are still being held without bail and without trial.  This despite the fact that most of them are not being charged with acts of violence and have no history of prior arrest.  And despite the federal regulations which stipulate that federal prisoners must be tried within 70 days.  Many prisoners have been held as long as a full year now.  Many are in dire financial straits, having lost their businesses and homes, and are unable to afford adequate legal counsel.

A relative of one of the prisoners started a fund-raising campaign on this web site: www.PatriotFreedomProject.com.  On this site, it is possible to donate funds of any quantity, even a small amount helps, to either the fund-raising project as a whole, or to any individual prisoner that one wants.  Readers can learn about each individual prisoner and can simply offer prayers and words of encouragement by clicking on the tab called “Connect with a 1/6er.”

Before Christmas, each prisoner’s prison address was posted on the web site so that people could send cards.  I took it upon myself to write to each prisoner.  Slowly, I have been receiving responses from those to whom I wrote.

The prisoners expressed to me that they are being “locked down”, often in solitary confinement.  The current excuse for this is covid, according to the letters I received.  They are often denied reading material, have had personal mail confiscated, and are harassed for being white.  They are mystified that prisoners can be treated so badly.

The deplorable conditions they are being subjected to were documented in a visit to the DC Department of Corrections facilities by representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX) on November 4, 2021.  In their report, they write that the prisoners did not have access to their attorneys, families, medical attention, or even proper nutrition.  On the Patriot Freedom Project web site, several prisoners described being fed a thin slice of bologna with a thin slice of cheese.  Some reported severe weight loss.  It was reported to Reps. Greene and Gohmert that the prisoners are “punished” with a 14-day lockdown in solitary for seeing their lawyer.  On the Patriot Freedom Project web site some of the men allege that a prisoner was severely beaten for wanting to start a Bible study group.

Regardless of whether any individual prisoner is guilty or innocent, no prisoner in the United States should be treated in this manner.  Prisoners in our country are typically fed three meals a day, have medical care, have recreation time, are allowed reading material and access to a library, are allowed to watch TV, and are allowed to participate in Bible study.  The J6 prisoners are not.  They are being treated differently from other prisoners – differently, and far worse.

I want to encourage readers to please go to www.PatriotFreedomProject.com to make a donation to help with these prisoners’ legal defense.  Or, at the very least, to offer some words of prayer and encouragement.  It is the human – and humane – thing to do.

Esther Uriel is a pseudonym