New York City's bail reform does not take effect until Jan. 1, but Brooklyn prosecutors are not even asking for bail in cases related to the spate of anti-Semitic attacks, according to the New York Post.
"The [Mayor Bill] de Blasio administration has made it clear that we all need to get into compliance with bail reform now," a law enforcement source told the Post.
"If prosecutors had asked for bail, corrections would release them immediately."
Arraignment judges are required to set suspects free in cases that do not involve sexual assault or cause physical injury, even in cases of hate crimes.
"You have to beat the hell out of somebody — or murder them — for there to be any consequences; otherwise, you are set free," Americans Against Anti-Semitism founder and former lawmaker Dov Hikind told the Post.
"It's open season in New York — open season on innocent people. On Jews, on Muslims, on gay people. It applies to anybody. But it's the Jewish people in particular who have been targeted."
Just one of the eight recent anti-Semitic attacks in New York City resulted in physical injury, per the Post.
"We're scared to walk at night in the street," Borough Park's Steve Benjamin, 30, told the Post. "There is a lot of hate here, and I don't know why. People in the community are scared. It's very dangerous. It's just like remembering the days before World War II. I don't let my kids out alone.
"It should be more justice — they arrest them, but they let them out of jail a day later."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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