Hapless New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio professes incredulity upon discovering that criminals who have been released from the city’s jail are — wait for it — committing more crimes on the city’s streets.
It is “unconscionable” that Riker’s Island inmates who were released due to coronavirus concerns are committing new crimes, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.
“I think it’s unconscionable just on a human level that folks were shown mercy and this is what some of them have done,” the mayor said during his morning briefing Monday, which came on the heels of a Post report outlining the issue.
De Blasio said the number of re-offenders remains relatively small and said the city was “buckling down” on monitoring and supervising released prisoners.
– Julia Marsh in Inmates committing crimes after coronavirus release ‘unconscionable’: De Blasio
But wait! It appears this jaw-dropping phenomenon is not confined to Gotham.
There is a growing body of anecdotal evidence that releasing some convicts early due to fears of the virus is backfiring on authorities. The well-intentioned desire by government officials to protect at-risk inmates from exposure to the contagion has led to violent, even deadly, consequences. […]
In California, a man released under an emergency court order to reduce jail overcrowding during the coronavirus pandemic has been charged with allegedly carjacking someone and hitting someone else over the head with a hammer just days after his release, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
In Florida, one of the 164 inmates released from the Hillsborough County jail on March 19 under measures to contain the coronavirus allegedly killed someone on March 20. Joseph Edward Williams, 26, had been booked into jail on March 13 for possession of less than four grams of heroin, a third-degree felony, and possession of drug paraphernalia, a first-degree misdemeanor, the Tampa Bay Times reports, but his rap sheet included arrests on 35 previous charges.
– James Hohman in The Daily 202: As coronavirus prompts early prison releases, Trump hints at pardons for former advisers
But Nobel laureates still ridicule Americans who are buying guns.