The NYPD arrested 120 suspected gang members in the biggest crack-down in New York City’s history, CBS New York reports, for crimes such as murder, robbery, drug trafficking, and more.
Federal authorities from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Drug Enforcement Agency also took part in the raids as more than 1,000 law enforcement officers in helicopters and armored trucks nabbed suspects from the “2Fly YGz” and the “Big Money Bosses” gangs accused of “terrorizing residents” for years with their violent lawlessness. Sources tell the New York Daily News that the suspects may be responsible for seven murders, including the death of a 92-year-old woman killed by a stray bullet.
The massive takedown in the Bronx comes as Republicans debate a sentencing reduction and early release bill for convicted criminals and the Obama administration celebrates “National Reentry Week” for convicted criminals, many of whom are violent repeat offenders.
Many of the arrested Bronx suspects appear to be young adults.
If convicted, they’re primed to become beneficiaries of the Obama administration’s multi-million dollar efforts to ensure that as ex-cons they can receive more taxpayer dollars. Attorney General Loretta Lynch calls criminals under the age of 24 convicted of serious crimes “justice-involved youth” and is working to expunge or seal some criminal records so they suffer few if any ongoing consequences for destroying lives and Americans don’t know if they’re dealing with a dangerous criminal.
Even if convicted of murder and other violent crimes, the felons can move to Virginia and enjoy voting rights, the ability to run for office and serve on juries, and work as a notary. Longtime Clinton ally Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe granted 206,000 felons these rights just months before the presidential election — and that’s just a start. They can enjoy the same rights as their victims and lifelong, law-abiding citizens.
Republicans pushing sentencing reductions in Congress, which conservative journalist David Horowitz criticizes as “jailbreak” legislation, are repeating the same lines as the Democrats about the myth of “mass incarceration” and the sudden need to help Democrats hasten the release of criminals to ply them with more taxpayer money and give them a leg-up over non-criminals. They couch it in the language of togetherness — as president of the American Enterprise Institute Arthur Brooks said at the White House on Monday: “What better way to bring people together than to look at those at the periphery of our society and say, what can we do together to need them?”
But Americans not safely isolated in gated, superrich neighborhoods like D.C. think tank leaders don’t appear to want “to need” those who have shown themselves to be a menace to society — as residents of Bronx neighborhoods can testify. As Speaker Paul Ryan rushes to ensure more gang members like those who held a poor New York neighborhood hostage are released back into the streets, lower-income blacks and whites, along with swing voters, are growing more and more deeply worried about crime. The poll numbers are even more lopsided when broken down: While 46 percent of whites are greatly worried about crime, 68 percent of non-whites are.
The bipartisan scheme to break more convicts out of prison as crime soars isn’t likely to put their fears to rest.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.