#Attorney General Barr says New York violence spike due to bail reform

Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday blamed soaring gun violence and murder in New York City on the state’s bail reform law, which he said allows the near-instantaneous release of suspects who then seek retribution.

Barr blamed the reform law, which passed last year and was amended this year, as he celebrated a one-month halving of Chicago’s murder rate following the deployment of federal agents in the multi-city Operation Legend.

Barr blasted New York while condemning “revolving door” crime policies, which he said historically caused violence to spike in the early ’90s.

“People in the community will not come forward and engage with the police if they feel that someone about whom they’ve given information is going to be right back out on the street. They need to know that when the police take someone away, they’re not going to be there the next day to retaliate,” Barr said.

“In New York, for example, which had one of the best community policing programs in the country — it’s just an amazing program. It’s essentially falling apart right now because of the changes made in state law on bail reform, where people are just out on the street almost instantaneously, and their lawyers get access to the information provided to the police that served as the basis for the arrest.”

Barr also was attorney general under President George HW Bush. He pointed to other factors behind a spike in violence in major US cities following unrest over the May police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.

“I think the increases in crime, there may be a number of factors involved, but part of it is the emboldening of the criminal elements, the chronic offenders, and the perhaps withdrawal of the police in the wake of the attacks on the police,” Barr said. “A lot of these hoodlums on the street fell that have impunity to carry their guns out on the street. They don’t hide them anymore.”

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), rejected Barr’s allegation that bail reform resulted in greater lawlessness in New York.

“It’s a lie that has been fact-checked and discredited and this two-bit Roy Cohn impersonator should knock it off,” Azzopardi said.

The reform law passed, in part, because of concern about poor people languishing in pre-trial detention for minor offenses. The state legislature in April approved changes to the bail reform law that allow judges to impose bail for a wider range of criminal suspects, including for sex trafficking and grand larceny.

President Trump last week ordered Barr to develop within 14 days a list of “anarchist jurisdictions” that can lose federal funds for tolerating violent protests or defunding police amid rising violent crime. The same memo requires federal agencies to report a list of federal funds that can be pulled from New York and three other cities.

The New York City Council approved a budget in July that cuts $1 billion cut to the NYPD’s $6 billion annual budget. In July, New York City had a 177 percent spike in shootings compared to last year. For August, shootings were up 165 percent and murders were up about 50 percent.