By Allison Moon
The 20th Precinct May Community Council meeting, held at the precinct house on 82nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues on Thursday evening, got more into the weeds of the legal system than usual.
Sensing rising frustration among residents with regard to neighborhood crime, bail reform, and the role of the Office of the District Attorney in curtailing policing powers, two attorneys from the District Attorney’s Office came to address residents directly, they explained.
They were the Deputy Chiefs of Trial from the DA’s Office, Andy Warshawer and Michelle Bayer. (Photographs are no longer allowed at community council meetings.)
Post Arrest, Pretrial
The prosecutors’ aim was to clarify exactly what happens after an arrest. They explained that the post-arrest, pretrial time period is at the heart of understanding why it is that the crimes covered in the local news are so often committed by individuals revealed to already have extensive criminal records.
The prosecutors pointed to the criminal law reforms that took effect in January 2020, enacted by the state legislature, which affected the prevalence of issuing “desk appearance tickets” (DATs) versus taking the route of pretrial detainment for different classes of crimes.
The prosecutors explained this change in law by laying out the timeline from arrest to trial in three stages. The first and most straightforward step is that the individual is arrested for the crime and brought to the precinct. Second, the crime must be classified in order to determine the course of action. Then, things grow more complicated due to recent law.
Under the reforms, “most of everything that is not a felony will be dealt with with a desk appearance ticket,” which means that the offender is issued a DAT but is not detained prior to trial, the prosecutors explained.
These DATs state that the individual must come to court within 20 days of receiving the ticket; however, the prosecutors said that while the measures to get these individuals to come to court do exist, they are “not terribly coercive” and more of the “reminder variety.” Thus, while the third and final step should ideally be the individual following their DAT and coming to court, often, individuals never show up, they said.
Ultimately, these reforms make it so, “as a rule of thumb, charges that are not violent felony charges are not charges in which we will detain someone before a trial,” Warshawer said. While prosecutors and judges used to have leeway in determining whether a certain situation should be a bail case or not, “that ability has been taken away” and has required the police and DA’s Office to “move from a model where the presumption is ‘many people with serious charges wait in jail to have their case tried’ to ‘most people don’t’,” according to Warshawer.
Alternatively, if the individual is arrested on felony charges for a violent crime, they will not receive a DAT at the precinct and will instead be immediately fingerprinted and detained. But the prosecutors emphasized the high bar that current law sets for the pretrial detainment of even those who commit felonies, by explaining how non-violent felony charges (they cited the example of a lower-level felony: an undercover cop catching someone selling crack) most often will not lead to detainments, but instead the issuance of a DAT, allowing the offender to walk free prior to trial.
Responses From the Community and the Captain
Responses from community members ranged from a mixture of gratitude for the police for working within this restrictive legal framework to feelings of anger and frustration. One community member did not mince words: “This system sucks.” Another lamented how the system allows for a “revolving door of criminals” and permits “violent criminals back on the street.”
Captain Zuber followed up the remarks from the DA’s Office by emphasizing how the police must work within the confines of these laws laid out by the DAs. He reiterated that, unlike pre-2020, the police are no longer able to use their own discretion for detaining offenders prior to when the offender sees the judge. While this may decrease the police’s power in terms of certain capacities of enforcement, he urged the community members to understand that these are ultimately “well-meaning” but “imperfect” laws.
Other Business
Captain Zuber shared statistics about crime in the city – out of the city’s 77 precincts, only four are down in crime from this time last year, and barely so. Still, he emphasized the successes of the 20th Precinct. Despite a decrease in officers over the past year (31 to be exact), arrests in major crime categories are up in the precinct. They are “doing more with less every single day,” he said. He noted that the Precinct plans to home in on quality-of-life infractions, such as loud music and yelling, in the coming months.
New York City Council Member Gale Brewer closed the meeting by reviewing other neighborhood-related issues. She mentioned receiving calls about ice cream trucks parking in bike lanes, and specifically, calls expressing fear that customers at ice cream trucks were going to be hit by bikes while ordering. She assured residents that the City Council is tackling issues relating to bike lanes – including bikers ignoring traffic signals and using the lanes in the wrong direction – and unregulated outdoor dining set-ups crowding sidewalks.
Brewer ended by reminding citizens to take advantage of the free composting service to “set an example” with high district participation rates (this district is one of only 7 to receive this service). She added that she and other council members are actively advocating for more frequent litter basket pickups.
20th Precinct Community Council meetings typically take place on the fourth Thursday of each month at 7:00 PM in the precinct. Visit the website for more information.
Amazing that in light of numerous local examples of repeat offenders being released again and again, people such as Alvin Bragg, Brad Lander, etc. continue to claim that bail reform has nothing to do with the explosion in violent crime and degenerate behavior facing NYC communities.
you could be writing about the January 6 committee subpoenas and their targets many of whom are ‘out on bail’ continuing in their scofflaw ways.
Wait to see how many defy subpoenas after January 2023 when the new House “Russian Collusion Hoax” Committee starts their hearings.
” repeat offenders being released again and again”
You do understand that just because a cop arrests you doesn’t mean you committed the crime, right? If the people are convicted, then the problem is not with bail reform, which is BY DEFINITION about what happens before a trial.
People should just come out and say that they think the cops should be able to arbitrarily detain poor people and people of color without trial to make them feel safer. Because that’s what the old system was. Seriously, just say that if you think a cop arrests a person of color or a poor person, they’re probably guilty and *should* rot in prison, “innocent until proven guilty” being only for the rich white denizens of the UWS.
Wow. Talk about jumping to conclusions. Where did race come into this? And we are all implicitly applying our comments to those who are guilty of the crimes. People who are guilty of multiple crimes should not be walking the streets unpunished. I find it very hard to disagree with that statement.
The way the woke sensationalize things is almost as bad as Fox News, and you are giving them a lot of ammunition.
There is really no reason to throw out a Straw man argument like this. No one is suggesting throwing people who loiter in Rikers, nor has anyone brought race OR class into this. I think we would all be in favor of giving everyone their day in front of a judge, but as the article mentions, very clearly, the perps NEVER SHOW UP for their court date. Bail is set for a reason, primarily, to make sure the offender shows up for their court date. Sure, if these criminals were showing up and receiving their punishment, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
, no bail = no motivation to show up for court. No court = no punishment….no punishment = no deterrent to commit crimes…..and so the wicked cycle of recidivism continues. Rather than resort to calling an entire neighborhood elitist (and essentially racist), try understanding the concerns we have about a real problem that no one in city government seems to have a solution for.
Nicely boiled-down.
(By the way–if you don’t show up for a court date after being issued a DAT, they will put out a warrant for you, you will be rearrested, and then the court can consider the evidence that you won’t show up without bail. The cops just don’t like the burden of having to make that case first. But you’d demand that for yourself and your loved ones, and we owe it to all our neighbors.)
In other words, once again we have people blaming cops, blaming the courts, blaming everyone but the criminal for crimes. Bail reform has indeed caused recidivism and all efforts to prove otherwise are flat-out failures. Here’s a great solution to not getting arrested: don’t commit crime. Most of the people who are arrested and re-arrested and re-arrested have long and often violent rap sheets. I will agree that people are entitled to a speedy trial, but not having a speedy trial is no reason to let criminals off free. Bail works. No bail doesn’t work. By the way, suicide is not caused by being thrown in prison. Suicide is caused by depression, hopelessness, and mental illness. It has nothing to do with bail and never has. The police do their jobs. It’s the politicians who come up with idiotic ideas like “bail reform” who aren’t doing their jobs. Maybe if you start worrying about crime victims instead of criminals we’ll get someplace.
Race and class are in it whether you like it or not. I’m not sure what you think the straw man is. Pretrial detention is literally being thrown into jail before you have been convicted. People lose their jobs, their apartments, their custody arrangements, and are tossed into state-run hellholes. 15 people died at or shortly after leaving Rikers last year. (https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/rikers-inmates-died-2021.html) 15! We all know what happened to Kalief Browder, God rest his soul. All for not having money to make bail, when someone with money can write a check and walk free. The audacity to pretend it has nothing to do with race or class!
If the NYPD and the DA thinks someone is a danger to the community, then they need to do their jobs and get a speedy conviction. That’s how we keep people safe, not randomly imprisoning the poor.
People arrested for smoking, drinking, graffiti, noise, minor shoplifting, loitering, turnstile hopping, skateboarding, playing dominoes outside, or any other “quality of life” crime have no business seeing the bookings downtown. DAT’s only, regardless of what the pearl clutchers say. Otherwise, if you’re not eligible for bail, you have to go to Rikers then and fight kids with razors to call your public defender. The CO’s literally encourage this. Jail makes people more violent, it doesn’t solve crime.
As long as they aren’t outside your building or stealing from you it’s OK right? SMH. Also don’t complain about fare increases or crime on the subway.
What happens? Due to “social justice” and bail reform, they are released again and again and continue to commit crimes.
The goal is to force systematic change. Rising crime rates are a symptom of that overall goal. The worse it gets, the more power they consolidate. Eventually they’ll run out of money. New York is a one party state with few reasonable alternatives. Lack of political competition is producing terrible policy (or lack thereof).
So, do we have Governor Cuomo to blame for the rise in crime?
“where the presumption is ‘many people with serious charges wait in jail to have their case tried’ ”
I think they meant to say “many people with serious charges AND WITHOUT MONEY wait in jail to have their case tried”
Thank you WSR. This is very helpful!
It sounds like there is nothing in between murdering someone and stealing an item worth a dollar. Also, there is no penalty for repeat offenders. The number of arrests should be factored in in addition to the severity.
The question is, what do we have to do to fix this? Which specific elected officials are in the best position to change this? Bragg? State officials? Local officials? We need to focus on getting the right people in these roles asap.
Thank you to NYPD. It must be incredibly frustrating to have their jobs.
“The question is, what do we have to do to fix this?”
The answer is, vote Republican.
I have to agree. Life-long Democrat here. However I find myself very frustrated with the current ideology focusing on minor issues or wrong angles of major issues sweeping the rest under the rug.
As far as crime is concerned, it is painfully clear that Democrats won’t do anything meaningful or significant to reduce it.
It didn’t take Giuliani long to bring order to the city. Adams is now in the 5th month of being a Mayor and nothing changed. He only meddles into the things that shouldn’t be a focus such as school lunch menus that should be under authority of an expert nutritionist instead of the Mayor’s personal preferences.
As far as Brewer is concerned – she will be focusing on composting and dark stores while being mum about the shelters and crime.
Nicely-said, Jen. Concur.
Hey we can always be good at composting though!
Council Member Brewer was focused on Ice Cream truck parking and composting in a meeting about a surge in violent crime??
Caption Zuber identified major flaws in the current system, and our City Council Representative is a apparently a powerless bystander, incapable of addressing the mess that her policies led to?
Genuinely asking, did the WSR or anyone at this meeting ask Brewer what she plans to do about this??
No fan of Brewer, but I think we need to be fair here. Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but bail reform laws were passed at the state level, not by the City Council. Sure, she can use her position to raise the issue, but it is ultimately in the hands of our state legislature.
People who commit any violent crimes or assaults must be held until trial. Then crime will plummet.
What is it about the presumption of innocence that you don’t understand?
The only thing that needs to be composted are the tired and outdated ideas of the NYC council.
“Photographs are no longer allowed at community council meetings.” – Are these not public meetings? This sounds like an overreach.
Seattle recently changed their NY-like bail laws after they discovered that something like 60 individuals were responsible for over 2,000 crimes, because they kept getting released and never showed up for their trial. NY will likely follow suit. Even if it takes a massive red wave in November.
There is absolutely no need to vote red. Democratic candidates who are law and order candidates will be running in November. You simply have to listen to the candidates to know who supports what. I will not give up other rights that Republicans want me to give up. I will responsibly continue to vote blue. There are plenty of pro-cop Democrats. By the way, many of these anti-police laws originated in the NYC Council, not Albany. But you must pay attention to both City and State pols.
Could you, please, name one Democratic candidate who is is ready to take meaningful measures against rising crime and not usual lip service?
Adams was riding on it and he is a former cop. I voted for him. Did he accomplish anything re reducing crime in 5 whole months?
It was a hard decision for me to switch to voting Republican as they don’t represent most of my values. However reducing crime is my top priority right now and it is clear Dems won’t do it. They will be promising every day nee out-of-touch initiatives instead. Just like Adams is.
I am very glad that bike issues are being handled and hope the effort should include not allowing bikers to ride on sidewalks ever – especially motorized bikes.
“Photographs are no longer allowed at community council meetings..” -?- shhh *Because we proudly take OUR personal safety seriously ahead of yours’ -not your neighborhoods’ safety).
To all the commenters who are eager to get rid of bail reform:
How do you address the issue that thousands of people who have been convicted of no crime, many not even charged yet, many to be charged with minor infractions, were sitting in jail for many months or longer, awaiting trial? The vast majority of these are Blacks and Hispanics.
The tragic case of Kalief Browder highlighted this issue.
or maybe this injustice doesn’t matter to you. Or worse, maybe you prefer that these mostly young men be denied the presumption of innocence and continue to rot in jail.