Episode 36 Show Notes- Out of Control Lawmakers Destroying Once Great States
Episode Description
This week’s P.A.S. Report podcast raises the alarm bells about State and local lawmakers clearly violating their oath and implementing policies that will only hurt law-abiding American citizens. From New York State’s bail reform to Virginia’s proposed gun laws, these lawmakers have proven that they have little regard for We the People. Instead, they want to impose laws that completely undermine civilized society. In this episode, Professor Giordano explains what these states are trying to do and how they want to influence other states to adopt similar policies. Visit The P.A.S. Report website, and be sure to signup for The P.A.S. Report newsletter.
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Intro
Welcome to another episode of The PAS Report Podcast. This is your host Nick Giordano.
I am happy to say that most of the pundits screaming about war with Iran were wrong. As of now, and remember, situations can change quite quickly when it comes to international politics, it appears the Iranian government made the calculated decision to conduct an ineffective response to the killing of their top general in order to not provoke the United States into further military action.
What I am rather pleased about is the protests that have broken out around the streets of Iran, with protestors chanting death to the Ayatollah, as opposed to death to America. The Iranian people are disgusted with the lies and deceit of their government, and many are calling for the toppling of the regime.
Remember last week when I explained that Iran was ripe for another revolution, and the same ingredients that led to the 1979 Islamic Revolution are present today, only this time it’s against the Islamists. While the opposition still does not have a central figurehead to serve as the voice against Ayatollah Khamenei, the Ayatollah himself may have become the spark that rallies the opposition. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.
We had the final Democrat debate last night before the primary season really kicks off, but nothing newsworthy happened.
Another breaking story is that President Trump and Chinese officials announced the finalization of phase 1 of the Trade Agreement. This offers a lot of promise, but I do not know enough about the agreement or what’s in it to make any judgments just yet. That’s the difference between me and the advocacy news media. I’m not going to give you an opinion until I read the agreement.
As far as this week’s P.A.S. report podcast, there are many who are currently unaware of how elected officials are passing laws to completely undermine and actively hurt We the People. Policies like sanctuary states, bail reform, and Virginia’s proposed gun laws, only illustrates how these states are out of control and the elected officials have no regard for the people they swore to serve.
As always, if you want to see the show notes go to thepasreport.com. Also, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.
New York’s Bail Reform
A couple of week’s ago, in a previous episode, I briefly touched on how Suffolk and Nassau Counties in New York would be releasing approximately 700 people who have been charged criminally due to the New York State bail reform bill.
Many of you emailed me and were shocked. Most people were completely unaware of the bail reform bill that was passed by Governor Cuomo and the NYS legislature. So, if I figured, I would go in-depth about what the bail reform bill is, what’s currently happening, and how it has hurt nearly every community in New York.
When looking at the bail reform bill, it is clear that not one police officer, judge, prosecutor, or victim advocacy groups were even asked to provide their perspective during the legislative process.
In April of 2019, when our pathetic New York State legislature was debating driver licenses for illegal immigrants, legalizing prostitution, and a whole bunch of other nonsensical issues that have nothing to do with the problems New Yorkers face daily, our genius elected officials decided to tackle bail reform.
Elected officials argued that bail hurt lower-income individuals who could not afford to post bail during pretrial, and so these individuals would languish in jail until their trial or they plea-bargained the case. Proponents of this law said that bail reform was necessary and would save millions of dollars because it would reduce the daily jail population throughout NY. They argued that America is a place, not of law and order, but of mass incarceration.
Nobody was really paying attention to when the NYS legislature passed the bail reform law, and Governor Cuomo signed it into law in April of 2019. And I want to remind everyone that this was Governor Cuomo’s puppy. He called to eliminate money bail entirely from the system.
The Bail Elimination Act of 2019 was passed in April and went into effect on January 1, 2020.
Purpose of bail
The purpose of bail is to ensure a criminal defendant, who is released from custody, shows up to future court dates. This creates an incentive for the person to show up to court because they would likely need that money. A judge decides the amount of bail based on two major criteria. First is the seriousness of the crime. The logic goes that the more serious the crime, the higher the bail would be. The second is how likely the defendant is to be a flight risk. The more a criminal defendant poses a flight risk, the higher the bail will be.
Governor Cuomo decided that the bail structure only hurt poor people, and he pushed for nonmonetary conditions for the release of criminal offenders.
Like most other things, when elected officials think they know what’s best- run. These are not smart people and, so the Bail Reform Act of 2019 is one of the worst pieces of legislation that I have ever seen.
Who will be released under the new law?
I will go through how this law works and who gets released.
- For misdemeanors, judges must release the criminal defendant on their own recognizance. The criminal defendant is issued a citation to appear in court. If the charge involves domestic violence, a sex-related offense, or has a prior violent felony conviction within the last 5 years, the judge may order the person to report under supervision, basically a probation officer, or to wear an electronic monitoring device.
- For nonviolent felonies, again, the judge can release the defendant on their own recognizance, or if the judge deems it necessary, they can order supervision or electronic monitoring. On certain nonviolent felonies, such as sex offenses, witness tampering, and terrorism-related offenses, the judge can order a limited amount of bail to be set.
- For violent felonies, judges may set bail if they find all other options insufficient. However, bail cannot be set for burglary or robbery in the second degree. These defendants will be released on their own recognizance or other nonmonetary conditions.
According to the law, if a person meets the criteria where bail can be set for violent or nonviolent felonies, the judge MUST consider the person’s ability to pay bail and “the hardship it will impose.” In addition, a judge must offer bail in an unsecured or partially secured form meaning that the person does not have to provide any money upfront or only pay a maximum of 10-percent of the imposed bail in order to be released.
If judges do want to impose conditions, such as supervision, the judge must defer to the least restrictive condition. Electronic monitoring can only be ordered if the court deems there is no other nonmonetary conditions that will ensure a person returns to court. Electronic monitoring can only last up to 60 days.
Another illogical part of the law puts the financial burden on you, the taxpayer. If a criminal defendant requires supervision or electronic monitoring, you the taxpayer will be responsible for the bill, not the person criminally charged. It doesn’t matter if they plea bargain or are found guilty.
So, what does this mean
Basically, anyone that commits a crime short of murder can be released without bail.
How does this make sense to anyone? Let’s remember, there are no victimless crimes. When someone commits a crime, they are not only committing a crime against individual people, but they are committing a crime against society. This bill allows those charged with a whole slew of dangerous crimes to walk free, including selling drugs, assault, theft, prostitution, domestic violence, etc.
Take a burglar. A person with a 10-year rap sheet for larceny gets arrested for burglarizing a house. According to this law, no bail is necessary even though the person has a history of theft. The person whose home was burglarized is a victim, but so is the community because insurance rates increase and property values decline.
Take a drug dealer. The person may have a history of drug dealing and sold a bad batch of heroin. Several people die, but the drug dealer did not have intent on killing these individuals and so it is deemed a nonviolent felony. How would you feel if that was your son or daughter who overdosed? What if it was a friend or a member of your family? Would you want to see that person released only to not show up for their court date, and then get caught selling drugs again?
How has it worked so far?
Let’s take a look at how the Bail Reform bill has worked out so far.
- A drunk driver, Jordan Randolph, was released after a fatal car crash that killed 27-year-old Jonathan Arman Flores-Maldonado. (News 12) I wonder how his family must feel.
- 61 gang members from the Bloods, Crips, MS-13, and the Latin Kings were released back into communities on Long Island following the implementation of this law. (Independent Sentinel)
- A Syracuse man, Darien Shellman, has been released after being charged with second-degree manslaughter for allegedly shooting and killing his girlfriend.
- An illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic was released after being caught with 3 ounces of cocaine, quantities of heroin and marijuana, thousands of dollars in cash, and a digital scale at a motel in Queensbury, NY. (The Post Star) Anyone want to take the over/under on whether he shows up for court?
- Gerod Woodberry was arrested for robbing four banks. He was released under the new Bail Reform law. And guess what he did the next day? If you guessed he robbed another bank, congratulations. You are correct. (NY Daily News)
- Steven Haynes was arrested for punching an NYPD officer in the face. He was charged with felony assault and released with a citation to appear in court. Well, he had a court appearance, and never showed up. Shocking. A warrant had to be issued and he was rearrested. (NY Post)
- On January 13, an Albany man, Paul Barbaritano, was released on manslaughter charges. The charges have now been upgraded to murder for killing Nicole Jennings. Let’s see if he appears in court for the updated charges. (WGY News Radio)
- Zachary Gulini, a violent sex offender who failed to register as a sex offender, and has a 10-year criminal history, was released because of the new Bail Reform law only to victimize his victims again. According to the Sex Offender Registry, Gulini attempted to rape a 14-year-old girl when he was 20. (CNY Central)
- Tiffany Harris was arrested for slapping three Orthodox Jewish Women and was released. 24-hours later, she did the same thing to another Jewish woman. She was released again and was arrested yet again for failing to show up for an appointment with a social worker.
These are just some examples. I can go on and on, and we are only 14 days into this law.
Reform is necessary
Now some of these same morons that pushed this law, including Governor Cuomo, are now saying that it may need tweaking. Gee, you think. This legislation was a recipe for disaster, and any normal person could have seen this ending in disaster.
The problem is these elected officials don’t care. They claim they are fighting for poor people, but they are allowing these people to return to the most vulnerable low-income communities. The numbers are staggering. According to the Center for Court Innovation, of the 205,000 criminal cases arraigned only in New York City in 2018, only 10-percent of them would have required cash bail. (Center for Court Innovations) God only knows what the number is statewide.
If they really cared about the poor community, they would prevent crime from occurring. The reason these are poor communities is that businesses and corporations don’t want to invest in high-crime areas. Reduce crime and investment money flows, which ultimately leads to better jobs and increased property values.
But the elected officials don’t care because they just want the votes. They don’t live in these communities, they just represent them, and represent them poorly. I ask anyone in these communities to just ask themselves, have their lives and communities improved over the last 40 years?
Every New Yorker bears responsibility for what’s taking place. We bear responsibility for the cesspool New York has become. We were warned by our own Governor when he said Conservative Americans aren’t welcomed in the state. When he called ICE agents thugs. When he attacks the law enforcement community. Yet, he was overwhelmingly reelected.
People are leaving the state in droves. The state is unaffordable for young people. The schools are collapsing. Kabul Afghanistan has better roads then we do, which is said because there’s a war going on over there.
But we have failed our state, and the country, by not getting involved, by not speaking up, and most importantly, by not voting. We need to wake up, and this should be a lesson to every person, in every state, this is what happens when you disengage from the political process. The loons end up controlling the asylum, and We the People suffer.
Virginia’s proposed Gun Laws
New York is not the only state showing little regard for We the People. Virginia Senate Bill 16 was one of the biggest threats to the 2nd Amendment that I have ever seen. The bill, introduced by State Senator Richard Saslaw, would have outlawed almost all firearms within the states. Basically, any firearm that could hold a magazine with more than 7 bullets would have been deemed an assault weapon and considered illegal.
Luckily, this part of the bill was pulled after the enormous backlash from ordinary Americans, as well as law enforcement officials throughout the state who said they would not enforce a law they believed was completely unconstitutional. However, while this bill died in the Senate, a nearly identical bill has been proposed in the Virginia House of Delegates.
Also, Virginia has another bill that creates Red Flag laws. The idea behind red flag laws is to take the firearms away from those who may pose a threat to themselves, others or society as a whole. While these laws may sound good, I am not optimistic they will make a difference, and I have a whole host of other concerns.
If someone posts online that they wish to inflict harm on others or potentially kill others, it’s obvious, but what happens when the messages are much more cryptic?
Who defines what a threat actually is? I routinely criticize the government and politicians. I bash Congress on a regular basis. Will I be perceived as a threat even though I pose no danger whatsoever?
What about due process? Red Flag Laws are essentially trying to predict a crime will occur. How do we place guilt before the actual crime takes place, and what happens to a person’s due process once they have their firearms seized? Do we now change the standard to guilty until proven innocent, and how does that impact the broader justice system?
Who are going to be the ones the sift through the social media channels for these threats? Are we really going to empower social media companies? Are everyone’s social media accounts now going to be monitored? What happens when innocent people get swept up in the Red Flag Laws?
Even if we identify the threat, will the government be able to stop them? Do you really have that much faith in the government that they can protect you from anything and everything? As I stated before, the government cannot even successfully fix our roadways, and that’s a pretty simple task, but yet we are going to entrust them to effectively use Red Flag Laws, to try and predict when a crime is going to happen?
Importance of Second Amendment
We live in a free society, and our free society carries risks. I want to remind people why the Second Amendment exists. It has nothing to do with hunting or home invasion. The founding fathers thought it was necessary to have an armed citizenry in order to keep the government from becoming abusive and tyrannical.
The 2nd Amendment exists for the purpose of war. War against an abusive and repressive government. Remember what Thomas Jefferson said, “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms?”
I constantly get told by gun control advocates that it doesn’t matter. That if our government did become abusive and tyrannical, we would never be able to defeat them anyway so we might as well make our society safer by removing the guns. That’s not only illogical, but it’s also idiotic.
Imagine that logic during the American Revolution. Britain was a superpower with one of the most dominant militaries in the history of the world. They were well-trained, well-equipped, and had endless amounts of money and resources. Our military consisted of farmers who had no military training. We were not well-equipped and couldn’t even afford boots for the soldiers. In fact, if we put in all the variables, and run the computer simulations, Britain wins 99.5-percent of the time. We come out victorious only .5-percent, yet that’s exactly what happened.
I trust the American people with firearms, and for the most part, we have proven to be extremely responsible. There are over 300-million firearms in the United States, and over 50-percent of the American people own a firearm, yet you are much more likely to die from smoking, drugs, car accidents, fast food and heart disease than you are by a firearm.
Closing
Once again, it is time for us to get actively involved. We need to stop sitting on the sidelines and allowing these once-great states to be controlled by a minority bunch of loons. The silent majority exists out there, and if you all start speaking up, we can correct the problems.
Enough with these policies that target productive members of society, and I didn’t even bring up sanctuary states, especially considering that in New York City a 92-year-old woman was savagely raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant. This man, Reeaz Kahn, was arrested in November for beating up his father. ICE requested Kahn be turned over into their custody for deportation, but since NYC is a sanctuary city and NYS is a sanctuary state, he was released only to commit one of the most heinous possible crimes. How do these policies possibly benefit us?
Let’s hold these people accountable. Public servants are just that. They are elected to serve the public. Not push policies that hurt We the People, especially when it’s for nothing more than to gain a couple of votes because they want power and control.
Well, we need to take back control. We need to exert our power and influence and vote out every one of these politicians that are incapable of serving the public interest.
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