By Will Barclay
National Crime Prevention Month represents an opportunity for individuals and organizations of every type to recommit to making our communities safer and to show our appreciation for the dedicated law enforcement agents who tirelessly work toward those goals every day. During the month of October, government agencies, community groups, businesses, schools and more focus on ways to educate individuals about crime prevention and promote awareness about how crime impacts victims and damages our communities.
The Assembly Minority Conference takes crime prevention very seriously. One of our key priorities each year is to promote legislation that protects residents and those who risk their well-being to keep us safe. Our commitment to crime victims and law enforcement is something I am extremely proud of; I have always believed the most important role of government is to keep those it represents safe.
Considering our substantial commitment to protecting the state, our Conference has worked hard on programs and policies to that end. For example, our recently launched Task Force on Human Trafficking has already garnered considerable feedback in an area of growing concern in New York. With the insights we’ve gained during recent forums, we have been able to begin crafting legislation to protect vulnerable individuals from the terrors of forced sex work and abuse.
We’ve also looked closely at fixing some of the chief issues driving crime in New York like the near elimination of bail, numerous anti-police reforms, a massive influx of migrants and misguided laws like “Raise the Age.” The way the state mitigates and prosecutes crime has drifted too far from the commonsense, accepted practices governing most of the country. Here, we treat criminals better than cops, and that has to stop.
In addition, we have also offered a number of ways to protect our law enforcement agents already fighting an uphill battle in New York. We have written legislation:
- Making life imprisonment without parole mandatory for defendants convicted of murder in the first or second degree if the victim is a police officer, specified peace officer, first responder or correctional officer (A.7472, Angelino/S.408, Gallivan).
- Designating offenses against law enforcement, emergency medical services personnel and/or firefighters as hate crimes, thereby increasing the penalty for the offense (A.3417, DeStefano/S.6091, Murray).
- Allowing judges to consider the safety of any person or the community when determining pre-trial release for a criminal suspect (A.9708, Reilly).
- Reinstating the death penalty in New York State and making it an available sentence for those convicted of the intentional killing of police officers, specified peace officers and first responders, among others (A.3906, Barclay/S.1271, Ortt).
During October, consider ways you can better educate yourself about the impact crime has, especially on vulnerable individuals like children, the elderly and those in the disability community. Also, consider taking time to show appreciation for the individuals who keep us safe every day. Together, we can find ways to strengthen the fabric of our state and our nation through education, compassion and commitment to protecting one another.
Will Barclay (R,C,I-Pulaski) is the Assembly Minority Leader.