O’Mara: State Parole Board needs to stop setting cop killers free

Albany, N.Y., June 4—State Senator Tom O’Mara (R,C-Big Flats) joined members of the Senate and Assembly Republican conferences, and representatives of some of New York’s top law enforcement agencies, to strongly criticize the actions of the state Parole Board and its continued release of cop killers and other violent inmates from prison.  

O’Mara said, “When will Albany Democrats finally come to their senses? When will Governor Hochul and the Legislature’s Democrat majorities face the fact that this state is becoming less and less safe, and more and more violent? When will they finally hear the demands of so many New Yorkers who don’t feel safe anymore? It is long past time for Albany Democrats to address their failed soft-on-crime, anti-law-and-order approach to criminal justice and recognize a rapidly deteriorating climate of public safety and security that has become the hallmark of their government. They can start by shutting down a state Parole Board that keeps making the release of cop killers as a top priority. It’s wrong, it’s disrespectful to the families of these fallen officers, and it fuels the state of lawlessness that has become pervasive inside New York’s prisons and throughout our streets and neighborhoods.”

Senate and Assembly Republicans were joined by Patrick Phelan, Executive Director of the New York Association of Chiefs of Police, and Delaware County Sheriff Craig Dumond, President of New York State Sheriff’s Association, to blast the Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies. 

In particular, the group singled out the state Parole Board which,  since 2017, has released at least 41 cop killers. Under current Democrat proposals including so-called “Elder Parole” legislation and the “Fair and Timely Parole Act,” even more notorious cop killers would become eligible for early release. Later this month, the Board is set to consider early release applications from Eddie Matos and Mitchell Martin. Matos is currently serving 25 years to life for throwing NYPD Officer Anthony Dwyer off a roof in October 1989, killing him. Martin shot NYPD Officer James Whittington to death on the streets of Brooklyn in 1982.

Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt said, “Law-abiding New Yorkers and the police officers who protect them have been disregarded and disrespected by Democrats who have used their monopoly on power in Albany to create a state of lawlessness. The families of Officers Dwyer and Whittington and too many others like them have suffered every single day for decades knowing their loved one is gone, then they are made to relive the pain every time these monsters come up for parole. They sadly know full well that members of the Parole Board who support their release will be praised by some of the very people whose job it is to make laws."