alt.activism, sac.politics, alt.politics.republicans   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
      
   You know the adage, “Don’t shoot yourself in the foot”? That’s exactly   
   what New Yorkers are doing by pouring their tax dollars into the Legal   
   Aid Society. It should be called the Illegal Aid Society. It’s 99%   
   publicly funded – with your state and local tax dollars – and its chief   
   business is litigating and lobbying to force changes in the law that   
   will benefit criminals and handcuff the police. Sadly, it’s been quite   
   successful.   
      
   I sat down with Gotham’s longest-serving police commissioner, Ray Kelly,   
   on Monday to get his take on the damage done.   
      
   “The Legal Aid Society seems hell-bent on ignoring the plight of the   
   victim while hampering the police at every turn,” says Kelly.   
      
   Andrew Cuomo, frontrunner in the Democratic primary for New York City   
   mayor, pledged on a candidate questionnaire published on Monday that he   
   will add 5,000 cops to the New York Police Department. Kelly laughs off   
   the pledge.   
      
   “With the rules in place, people don’t want the job,” Kelly says.   
   “Experienced cops are telling their sons and daughters not to enter the   
   force.”   
      
   Get ready for even more anti-policing ahead. Now Legal Aid is demanding   
   that police stop arresting people for what they call “low-level crimes”   
   like shoplifting. Legal Aid wants offenders merely issued summonses and   
   told to appear in court at a later date rather than hauled into the   
   police station. In 2021, more than half of people accused of petit   
   larceny got off with a mere summons, but now three-quarters are being   
   taken into custody.   
      
   That’s a good trend, says Kelly, not something to sue about. “Every   
   arrest should have an investigatory aspect to it,” he says. “Is the   
   suspect wanted for more serious crimes or violating parole? There is no   
   way to find that out except bringing the suspect into the police   
   station.”   
      
   Why should someone suspected of stealing $200 worth of goods at CVS be   
   set free without an arrest? The city is in the middle of a theft   
   epidemic. And city data show that suspects handed a summons fail to show   
   up for their court appearance more than half the time.   
      
   New Yorkers have had their fill of decriminalizing what the Left calls   
   “petty” acts.   
      
   Here’s another doozy Legal Aid goal – outlawing handcuffing the accused   
   for their initial court appearance. Legal Aid calls handcuffing   
   “dehumanizing.” It filed a class-action lawsuit against the NYPD last   
   November to block anyone from being handcuffed “without an   
   individualized judicial finding” that it’s necessary.   
      
   Ridiculous, says Kelly. Handcuffing “safeguards everybody, including   
   judges, court personnel and the police. It’s just common sense.”   
      
   Legal Aid opposes using weapons scanners to detect guns being carried   
   into the subway, deeming them “invasive.” Ridiculous.   
      
   Legal Aid wants the City Council to abolish the NYPD’s gang database,   
   calling it a “racist tool.” Nearly all the gang members ID’d are Black   
   or Latino, but Mayor Eric Adams, who sees the value of the database in   
   solving and even preventing gang shootings, points out that “96% of the   
   victims of shootings in the city are people of color. Let’s keep them in   
   mind.”   
      
   Legal Aid had the gall to demand that the NYPD turn over photographs and   
   tax identification numbers for all active-duty officers. It wanted a mug   
   book of cops instead of perps, to make it easier for Legal Aid’s clients   
   to identify and file complaints against cops.   
      
   Even Judge Arthur Engoron, famous for presiding over President Donald   
   Trump’s 2024 trial, saw the danger, ruling on March 29 that it would be   
   akin “to having a billboard in Times Square” targeting every police   
   officer.   
      
   Ensuring that the poor have adequate legal representation is a noble   
   goal, but Legal Aid goes way beyond that. It’s largely responsible for   
   the no-cash bail laws, the “Raise the Age” law and the 2019 discovery   
   “reforms” that require prosecutors to meet rigid deadlines for sharing   
   reams of largely irrelevant paperwork with the defense.   
      
   The discovery rules have enabled thousands of defendants to walk free.   
   “Cops risk their lives making arrests only to have cases dismissed on   
   hyper-technicalities brought by these ridiculous discovery rules,” says   
   Kelly. Even Gov. Kathy Hochul took a stand against them but failed to   
   bring significant change.   
      
   The damage has to stop, and now is the time, as Albany lawmakers wrap up   
   the state budget.   
      
   Instead of defunding the police – the Left’s favorite cause – Albany   
   should be defunding Legal Aid’s lobbying and class-action litigation.   
   It’s one thing to pay for lawyers for the indigent. But it’s   
   unacceptable for taxpayers to fund Legal Aid and similar pro-crime   
   groups that rig the system to make the rest of us less safe.   
      
   Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and Chairman   
   of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. Follow her on Twitter   
   @Betsy_McCaughey.   
      
   https://amac.us/newsline/society/the-illegal-aid-society-is-making-new-yo   
   rk-unsafe/   
      
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