Statement From Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt

From the back-room-deals of one of the most secretive state budget processes in New York’s history, out came tiny tweaks to the Democrats’ dangerous bail reform laws. Don’t be fooled: this is political window dressing to create the illusion of solving the problem, but does nothing to actually fix our broken criminal justice system.

Spiking violent crime has plagued New York communities for years now, thanks to the slew of pro-criminal, anti-victim, anti-police policies and rhetoric from Albany One-Party-Rule. How can New Yorkers trust these same politicians who created the crime crisis to fix it?

Under this so-called “fix” the following heinous crimes would still NOT be bail eligible: assault in the third degree, domestic violence offenses, driving drunk and causing serious injury, failure to register as a sex offender, killing a police K-9 or horse, unlawful possession of a weapon on school grounds – and this is the tip of the iceberg. Perpetrators of these dangerous, violent crimes, and a whole host of others, will continue to have a revolving door that releases them straight back onto the streets. 

The only true way to restore common sense and public safety to our state is to repeal the original law and start from scratch with an open, transparent process with all stakeholders at the table. With the input of victims and their families, law enforcement, district attorneys, prosecutors, judges, and local officials, we can bring safety and security back to our streets.

We cannot settle for the same behind-closed-doors-process that left innocent, law-abiding citizens with these disastrous laws and a violent crime surge in the first place. Nothing will change if nothing changes.

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