New York Assembly speaker not budging on bail reform policies despite concerns of violent crime

New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, has remained firm in his stance on bail reform policies for years and continues to do so, despite concerns about rising violent crime in New York City.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams — in his efforts to make the city safer through his "Blueprint to End Gun Violence" following a bloody two years — on Monday met with Heastie and New York Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, to discuss, in part, potential amendments to legislation passed during fiscal years 2018 and 2019 targeting bail and other criminal justice reforms.

The laws eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanor and non-violent felonies and raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18, respectively.

Adams has argued that judges should be allowed to consider an individual's "dangerousness" before determining whether to allow that person to re-enter society without paying bail. Bail is the amount of money a person accused of a crime must pay before they appear in court in order to be released from prison before their trial.

"If I am not getting the things I laid out in the blueprint, I still have the obligation to keeping the city safe," Adams said during the Monday meeting, according to the New York Daily News. "That’s why we are putting in place our anti-gun unit, that’s why we’re going to go after the causes and feeds of crime."

The mayor, a retired New York Police Department captain, continued: "I can’t turn around and say, ‘Well, I didn’t get help from different places, so now my city is not safe.’ Nope, I’m not accepting that. My job is to make New Yorkers safe, that’s my job. If I get help from other places, that’s fine. Without that help, I still must make sure that New Yorkers are safe, and I’m not going to use any excuse for not doing that."

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The mayor also reportedly highlighted the recent stabbing death of 35-year-old Christina Yuna Lee. Lee is the latest victim of Asian descent killed in a series of random attacks in New York City and the latest example of violent crime committed by a repeat offender suspect. 

Heastie and Stewart-Cousins showed no sign of budging, the outlet reported.

Heastie has argued since at least 2018 that setting high cash bails for individuals accused of low-level crimes creates wealth and race disparities and that eliminating bail would not increase violent crime.

"A non-violent thief who can post $3,000 bail is no more threatening than one who can't," he said in a January 2020, tweet. "The money is irrelevant; being poor doesn't make a defendant inherently more dangerous. But as practiced, NY’s legal system has long operated as if poverty equals danger."

In another January 2020 tweet, he responded to a Twitter user, arguing that "dangerousness is against the law and has been misused by the courts."

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"Bail was only to ensure you show up to court," he wrote. "We support and want to protect victims. We just want all defendants treated equally, whether rich or poor, black or white."

In an April 2019 tweet, Heastie said, "Wealth should not determine whether a person, accused but not convicted of a crime, will be jailed while awaiting trial."

The New York State Assembly speaker has defended bail reform on a number of occasions in which New York-based pundits, politicians and journalists have noted high-profile criminals who were released on bail before committing other dangerous crimes. He has also accused outlets like the New York Post of cherry-picking stories about violent criminals being released on bail.

His campaign website cites "the tragedy of Kalief Browder" as an example of how bail fails some people. Browder was charged at age 16 with second-degree robbery and held on $3,000 bond. Because his family and friends could not front the cash, however, Browder could not leave prison. He was held in solitary confinement on Riker's Island for more than two years. 

Browder eventually left prison after a total of three years once his charge was dismissed but hanged himself two years after his release. The case has been highlighted by a number of bail and criminal justice reform activists as an example of why bail should be eliminated for those accused of low-level crimes.

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"No young person should ever suffer the way Kalief did, and Speaker Heastie is committed to making that a reality," Heastie's campaign website states.

Heastie also recently shared a Times Union editorial stating that for every 100 defendants released over the first year of New York's bail reform law in 2020, one-third were re-arrested after leaving prison while awaiting the final outcomes of their cases, and an average 97 of those 100 released were not re-arrested for violent crimes. That leaves an average of three people out of every 100 who were re-arrested after their release for violent crimes.

In total, however, more than 3,400 people were re-arrested for violent crimes after their release following implementation of the state's new bail law, according to data from the New York Office of Court Administration reviewed by the Times Union.

The New York Assembly speaker told Politico that the topic of bail reform is "being used as a campaign fodder" in an article published Sunday. In an interview with WBFO-FM, he said part of his frustration with critics of his bail reform policies "is that when anything bad happens, it’s got to be bail reform’s fault."

Meanwhile, many New York Republicans and some Democrats suggest that eliminating cash bail can lead to the release of individuals who are later re-arrested for violent crimes and that judges should have more power over who is selected for release without bail.

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Heastie's office did not respond to an inquiry from Fox News Digital, and Adams' office pointed to the mayor's Tuesday press conference in which he assured journalists that his Monday meetings with New York legislators were amicable.

"I went to Albany as a mayor, and I represented this city with the issues that are important to this city, and the people heard me. They respected my opinion, and I respected their opinion," Adams said, adding that it was "really unfortunate" how press covered the event. "[W]e need to stop distorting the news."

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New York City has recorded 48 shootings so far in 2022 compared to 47 at the same time last year — a 2% decrease. It has recorded a nearly 15% increase, however, over two years since 2020, according to citywide crime statistics for the week ending on Feb. 13. Total violent crime in the Big Apple is up 46% compared to the same time period in 2021 and 12% compared to the same time period in 2020. 

Hate crimes complaints rose nearly 100% in 2021, police statistics show. Total year-end hate crime statics for 2021 show reports of anti-Asian attacks skyrocketed by a staggering 343% – from 30 in 2020 to 133 in 2021. 

All violent crime remains down since the early 2000s and 1990s.

Fox News' Stephanie Giang-Puanon and Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report.