When Democrats are in charge, stupid things happen.
And Tyquan Rivera walks free.
Last week, that particular convict was behind bars on $100,000 bail. This week, he walked out the door with an appearance ticket.
Hopefully he feels like coming back for trial on charges of pumping fentanyl into the community.
Either way, he is a living, breathing demonstration of the abject failure of New York’s criminal justice system, and New York Democrats’ criminals-first approach to reform.
Last year, in an almost-secret insertion into the state budget, Democrat Gov. Andy Cuomo and the Democrat-dominated New York state legislature essentially eliminated bail for all misdemeanors and most felonies. The list of crimes for which a person must be immediately released after arrest runs on to page after page after page.
And this was a great victory, as the Democrats tell it.
Somewhere in their umpteenth assertion of systemic racism and the school-to-prison pipeline, Democrats rejected the concept of bail, claiming that it is merely a way to keep poor people jailed. The position of the Democrats is that no one should be behind bars who has not been convicted of a crime.
Which overthrows about 500 years of legal belief in the concept of embailment – namely, that to get arrested people to appear at trial for their crimes some security must be taken of them. This is based on the real-world experience that people who don’t have anything to lose by not coming back to trial typically don’t come back to trial.
At any rate, New York Democrats decided that something in excess of 90 percent of arrested people should be given an appearance ticket at the scene their apprehension and released. Also, that law enforcement and courts have a duty to contact these arrested persons repeatedly prior to their court appearances to give them polite reminders.
All of which was done to curry favor with criminals, a core constituency of the Democratic Party.
But what about Tyquan Rivera?
Ten years ago, when he was 14 and his cornrows were new, Tyquan Rivera stepped out onto a porch on Dayton Street and fired a .22 rifle into a group of police officers standing down the block. One of those officers, 24-year-old Anthony DiPonzio, took the bullet in the head, where it ricocheted inside his skull, forever changing his life.
What with New York being the progressive capital of the nation, shooting a cop in the head will get you seven years in prison. And so it was that Tyquan, another rehabilitated wonder overcoming the oppression of a hateful society, was paroled. Until he broke the law again, and had to go back to prison, where he lived at taxpayer expense until last February.
When he apparently became a soldier in the opioid epidemic.
Hey, this fentanyl isn’t going to sell itself.
And so it was that, after a multi-agency investigation, the local Overdose Express was shut down and arrests were made.
Including Tyquan Rivera, victim of society.
Such was the significance of his alleged crime and past criminal record that the judge held him on $100,000 bail.
Or maybe that was racism or classism or the patriarchy or global warming some other bullcrap that progressives talk about all the time.
But then came the liberation of the new law, and with a magical stroke of the gubernatorial pen the rules changed at midnight.
Lady Justice turned back into a pumpkin and the jail doors flew open.
And Tyquan Rivera was set free. No questions asked, no bail taken. Have a nice day, please fill out our online survey.
Though they did take his passport.
Which is really going to eff up this spring’s tour of the chateaux of the Loire.
Well, there being a lot of racists in Rochester, there was a hue and cry which arose over the release of poor Tyquan.
Such was denounced by the governor’s spokesman as, “fear mongering being peddled by a vocal minority.”
So, that word having been handed down from on high, one wonders where the voices of the woke majority are.
Specifically, in Monroe County, with its politics now securely in the hand of the Democrats, where is the defense of Tyquan Rivera and the praise for this new policy?
Where is the mayor, to cheer from the steps of City Hall the release of this poster boy for bail reform? Or the county executive, with his close ties to the governor and the legislature which imposed this policy, why doesn’t he invite Tyquan down to the county office building and give him a proclamation?
Maybe Tyquan, freed from the shackles of the man, could be invited by the Brighton or Irondequoit supervisors to seek refuge in those enlightened and Democrat-controlled communities. And maybe the law-enforcement unions which just gave control of the county executive’s office to a Democrat can hold a press conference to welcome their little brother back to the streets.
Awkward observation: Maybe the two Democrat sheriffs in the region can explain why they still are.
Maybe all the Bernie Bros and the local Warren Wigwam can pitch in to throw a fundraiser for Tyquan Rivera.
Maybe just one Democrat could go on the evening news and explain why his walking free is the right thing.
And maybe people can remember that elections have consequences.
And when you crap the bed, you can’t complain about the stink.
You voted Democrat, and Tyquan is your reward.
I hope that works out for you.