Callous Albany could’ve prevented an NYC subway murder — but didn’t

Subways are extra harmful than they had been in 2019, and now underground homicide degree has elevated six-fold.
Gregory P. Mango

Pop criminal-justice quiz: What does New York state do with a violent particular person who randomly assaults a sleeping stranger on a Brooklyn A practice, threatening to kill that stranger after which repeatedly stabbing him within the abdomen and arm?

Does the state a) decide that the suspect, Alvin Charles, is a hazard to society and maintain him in jail till his speedy truthful trial? Or b) order a psychiatric analysis to find out if Charles wants mandated long-term remedy since randomly attacking fellow straphangers isn’t precisely regular habits?

No, sorry, the proper reply is c) launch the suspect with out bail — in order that he can stab one other random stranger on a special Brooklyn subway, this time with deadly outcomes.

Alvin Charles was arrested for stabbing Tommy Bailey to loss of life on the L practice on the Atlantic Avenue station.

Gregory P. Mango

That’s proper. The outrage isn't just that 43-year-old Tommy Bailey, father of three and longtime union steamfitter, misplaced his life final Friday night on the L practice in Brooklyn, when Charles, an ideal stranger, randomly slashed his throat, committing the twentieth subway homicide since March 2020.

The outrage is that Charles had already been arrested for basically the identical crime final spring. It simply so occurs that within the earlier, April 2021 case, fortuitously, the stabbing wasn’t deadly.

Everyone knows the subways are way more harmful than they had been in 2019 — no must bore everybody with the stats once more, besides to say that the underground homicide degree has elevated six-fold and that’s earlier than accounting for a lot decrease ridership now.

However no less than once we sit eyeing our fellow passengers for indicators of an outbreak of random homicide, we will determine if one among them has already tried to randomly homicide somebody on the subway in current months, that individual could be in jail or in a safe mental-health facility, proper?

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Tommy Bailey was killed after moving into an argument on a southbound L with homeless man Alvin Charles.

Nope: In final April’s case, after Charles’ first, nonfatal stabbing, a Brooklyn decide refused the district lawyer’s request to carry him on $50,000 bail. This was regardless that Charles had additionally allegedly attacked an earlier sufferer with a screwdriver, in 2019 (this one on the road, not the subway).

Charles walked free, not on a nonviolent cost corresponding to fare evasion or shoplifting, or on a violent cost corresponding to punching somebody throughout a bar battle, however on a random tried homicide (a cost formally added later, to the opposite felony and misdemeanor prices that associate with repeatedly stabbing somebody).

So he was free to allegedly kill Bailey final week on the L practice. Who didn’t do their job right here? The police did their jobs. They duly tracked down and arrested Charles after the screwdriver incident and once more after final yr’s subway stabbing. Did the decide, Jessica Earle-Gargan, do her job? Gov. Hochul would preserve that the bail-reform legal guidelines are working simply high quality; in any case, the decide might have set bail.

However why would the decide have set bail? The letter and the spirit of the legislation don’t enable her to think about whether or not an individual who stabs somebody on the subway for no cause may stab another person on the subway for no cause: that's, to think about whether or not Charles is a hazard. The one think about setting bail is whether or not somebody is more likely to present up for his subsequent courtroom date.

Charles was charged with allegedly knifing Bailey to loss of life.

In one other subway incident this week that would have been our seventh subway homicide of the yr — the pushing of a 25-year-old real-estate employee onto the Union Sq. tracks — a decide set $60,000 bail for the suspect, Clarence Anderson, after a psych analysis. However it’s fairly attainable — even probably — that Anderson could be free now if not for his current failure to seem in courtroom for different, earlier prices.

Once more: The decide can't contemplate whether or not pushing a stranger onto the subway tracks with trains coming alongside each couple of minutes is a harmful exercise.

Catch-and-release of an tried subway assassin to complete the deed is the bail system that Hochul thinks is working simply high quality. In August, she stated of the bail legal guidelines, “let’s see whether or not or not the system can begin functioning the way in which we meant.” Not for Tommy Bailey, it’s not.

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s Metropolis Journal.