Gov. Hochul must do much more to get violent mentally ill off streets
The latest announcement from Governor Kathy Hochul — that she will finally expand involuntary commitment — is a necessary but insufficient condition for public safety in New York. But the governor must be even bolder and go even further in protecting the people of New York from the violent crime surge unfolding on the streets and subways. The subway system saw the highest number of homicides in 27 years.Statistics only tell part of the story.
No numbers can capture the gruesome act of setting a straphanger on fire and the sheer terror it strikes in the hearts of New Yorkers. After weeks of declaring “mission accomplished” and taking subway selfies, Governor Hochul finally agreed to pursue the urgently needed policy changes that I have championed since the Ramon Rivera rampage: expanding involuntary commitment so that the Mayor has the authority he needs to relocate dangerous people from the subways and streets of New York. In the three years since the shocking murder of Michelle Go, who was shoved in front of an incoming subway car by a schizophrenic, the Governor stood by passively like a deer in headlights and did nothing to protect New Yorkers from those with severe mental illness. Governing is not about waiting years for more tragedies to happen.It’s about leadership, which is nowhere to be found in New York State.For far too long, the broken system in Albany has chosen gaslighting over governing. There’s no need to worry about New York, the political establishment tells us. No need to worry about open-air drug markets on the streets. No need to worry about sudden stabbings, slashings, and shovings on the subways. No need to worry about fewer and fewer retail stores with more and more products locked inside cases. No need to worry at all. Just ignore your lying eyes.
Except our lying eyes have not been the ones lying to us.It has been the Governor’s gaslighting and the broken system she leads. Kamel Hawkins, who shoved an innocent Ne...