Statement by State Senate Aging Committee Member Marty Golden on Assault and Robbery of Brooklyn Senior

“GRANNY’S LAW” WILL SEE JUSTICE SERVED

Brooklyn – State Senator Martin J. Golden, (R-C-I, Brooklyn), member of the New York State Senate Aging Committee and the author of the New York State Law known as “Granny’s Law” today issued the following statement in response to reports of the assault and robbery of Brooklyn’s 81-year old Madeline Klima:

 “New Yorkers have again watched a coward prey, rob and injure a honest, hard-working senior citizen, because criminals find seniors less able to defend themselves. The video stuns and horrifies all of us, and at the same time, reminds us that there are evil people who find it acceptable to brutalize our senior citizens.

New Yorkers have witnessed such gutless attacks in the recent past including the attacks on Rose Morat and Solange Elizee which led to my introduction of legislation, which is now law in New York State, known as “Granny’s Law”. There is no denying the need for such a law to be on the books here in New York that makes it so that for those who commit such heinous crimes against our older Americans face more severe penalties.

I am confident that the New York City Police Department will make an arrest in this incident which has left Mrs. Klima with a cut on her head and a broken left shoulder. More so, I am sure that this criminal will be tried to the full extent of the law and be held accountable, based on “Granny’s Law”, for her actions.”

Granny’s Law (S. 6979 of 2008) was signed into law by then-Governor Paterson on May 2, 2008, which elevated the assault of a person sixty-five years of age or older, when the perpetrator is more than ten years younger than the victim to Assault in the Second Degree, a Class D violent felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.