In New York, the Inmates Are in Charge

Convicted cop killers should never walk free. But New York’s soft-on-crime parole board is poised to release its 44th cop killer since 2017.

For this injustice, you can blame mayoral wannabee Andrew Cuomo and his criminal-coddling successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Also to blame is a network of George Soros-funded pro-crime advocacy groups – call it the decarceration-industrial complex – pressuring Albany lawmakers.

The executive director of one of these groups, Release Aging People from Prison, is himself out on parole after being convicted of attempted murder of an NYPD sergeant. You can’t make this up.

The parole “reform” agenda in Albany is being driven largely by ex-cons and bankrolled by extreme leftists.

Later this month, cop killer David McClary will go before the state parole board.

In 1988, McClary snuck up behind 22-year-old rookie cop Edward Byrne, in his patrol car guarding a building, and fired five bullets into the back of his head.

It was a horrific crime, but McClary’s odds of being paroled are good. In February, the board sprang Lee Ernest Walker, who fatally shot NYPD officer Juan Andino in 1984, the 43rd cop killer set free.

The surge in freeing cop killers is Cuomo’s doing. Cuomo appointed 12 of the current 16 state parole board members, including this doozy, Tana Agostini.

When Agostini worked on the staff of the Assembly committee overseeing prisons, she fell in love with prisoner Thomas O’Sullivan, a convicted murderer notorious for an escape attempt and attacking another prisoner. She lobbied the parole board to get O’Sullivan released, succeeding in 2013. Four years later, Cuomo appointed Agostini to the parole board herself.

Former state Assemblyman Brian Kolb called the governor’s choice “malpractice.” Credit RAPP, which lobbied Cuomo to rid the parole board of people with a law enforcement background.

Caving to leftist activists, Cuomo also ordered the board to consider an inmate’s “progress” behind bars more than the severity of the original offense.

Every year since, the prison gates have swung wide open for cop assassins, including Black Liberation Army assassin Anthony Bottom, released in 2020, after being convicted of pumping 12 shots into officer Joseph Piagentini as he begged to live.

Cuomo seems to love cop killers. Hours before resigning as governor in disgrace, what did he choose to do? He commuted the life sentence of David Gilbert, imprisoned for his role in a heist that left two police officers dead.

Allowing cop killers out on parole makes every cop a target.

Hochul hasn’t done much better. She should be staffing the parole board – a $170,000-a-year appointment that requires state Senate confirmation – but 11 of the 16 current members are operating on expired terms.

When Hochul tried to appoint NYPD legal adviser Ernest Hart, she got bulldozed by the Assembly’s pro-crime leftists, who, in the words of Assembly member Michaelle Solages, believe that incarceration “has its roots in systemic racism.”

That’s RAPP’s claim. RAPP is funded by Soros’s Open Society Foundation ($1.3 million donated to RAPP’s parent organization in the latest charity filing) as well as the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, among others. Saldana was paroled from state prison in 2018.

Also on RAPP’s staff is convicted murderer Stanley Bellamy, who became involved with the group while still behind bars. Pandering to RAPP, Hochul commuted Bellamy’s sentence in December 2022, lopping off 25 years. Bingo. Bellamy went from prisoner to parole advocate.

RAPP is pushing two radical bills.

The Elder Parole bill would permit prisoners age 55 or older who have served 15 years to apply for parole.

The Fair and Timely bill, explains Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, “rigs” parole hearings to consider the prisoner’s current risk to the public, regardless of how egregious the crime — even murdering a police officer. It’s Cuomo’s policy on steroids.

New York state legislators should be listening to police organizations, not Soros-funded ex-cons.

New York City voters who are distressed about crime have their eyes on the upcoming mayor’s race. But if Gotham residents, and New Yorkers in every other part of the state, want safety, they need to pay attention to what’s happening in Albany. There, the inmates and their allies are in charge, putting cops’ lives – and ours – at risk.

Some crimes are so depraved that the perpetrator should never be allowed out of prison. Assassinating a police officer tops the list.

Next year, New York voters should elect a governor and legislature that will outlaw the possibility of parole for convicted cop killers.

Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and Chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths at Hospitalinfection.org. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey.

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