Rep. Tom Suozzi on Tuesday blasted his main opponent in the Democratic primary, Gov. Kathy Hochul, over her new public safety plan, labeling it “phony” because it doesn’t include a measure giving judges power to lock up defendants they deem dangerous before trial.
“It’s phony and it does nothing to address the crime problem,” Suozzi (D-Long Island) insisted outside the governor’s Midtown office. “It’s not real.
“When there’s no consequences for crime, crime keeps going up,” added Suozzi, a moderate who is a longshot candidate in the June Democratic primary, according to recent polls.
Hochul’s 10-point criminal justice blueprint, first reported last week by The Post, is deficient in part because it doesn’t give judges “the discretion to consider dangerousness when determining whether to put offenders behind bars,” Suozzi declared.
Suozzi, Mayor Eric Adams and other moderate Democrats, Republicans and judges have for months called on Albany lawmakers to revise state law to impose a “dangerousness” standard to allow judges the power to remand those accused of crime they deem a threat to others.
