A great deal of work has already been done to make prosecutions in Queens more progressive
Tiffany Cabán, the apparent victor in the Democratic primary for Queens district attorney, ran on a campaign promising to upend the criminal justice status quo in New York City.
Cabán will replace Richard Brown, who died in office after serving as Queens DA for 28 years. Listening to those who ran against Brown’s legacy, one could be forgiven for believing that the past decades in New York City have seen little but state-sponsored oppression and systemic police racism.
The New York Times editorial board endorsed Cabán while criticizing “aggressive prosecutions that filled prisons and devastated generations of black and Hispanic families. Communities ravaged by mass incarceration are still trying to recover from this approach.”
How odd. New York City has achieved tremendous accomplishments preventing violence, improving policing, decreasing jail populations and more. These achievements came from the hard work and dedication and experience of some of the very people now being dismissed as part of some neo-liberal cabal.
Ordinary citizens may be unaware of these gains. The next Queens district attorney should not only be aware of them, but also build on their success. To uproot the current system risks doing, well, exactly that.
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