(Photo: WRVO)
Brexialee Torres-Ortiz, the Blodgett Middle School class president, was shot and killed on Jan. 16 while buying a gallon of milk in Syracuse, N.Y. She was caught in the crossfire of a suspected gang-related shooting, a disturbing trend that the city’s mayor called “senseless” and “brutal.”
New York Police Department data said that there are nearly 150 shooting victims under the age of 18 who died in New York City in 2022, an about 100% increase over a five-year period. Now, lawmakers from both parties are raising the alarm about the lack of criminal justice reform.
Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, R-NY said that the death of Torres is not new in the state. Tenney even claims she has also been a victim of crime in the area.
Furthermore, Tenny said, “My car was broken into, my neighbor’s house was broken into, and my other neighbor’s car was broken into.” That’s why crime “came up everywhere” on the 2022 midterm campaign trail.
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(Photo: ABC News)
The murder occurred just days after Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul unveiled a public safety plan that included $36 million for the Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) Initiative and $40 million to assist state district attorney’s offices in their prosecution efforts.
After New York’s crime wave dominated the 2022 midterm elections, flipping several seats to the GOP, the state’s leaders in Albany are now responding to voters’ calls to tighten bail laws and fund police departments. However, it is possible that the Republican delegation will not support this.
Tenny said they have these new laws in Albany that are just a few years old, spiking their crime because people aren’t held accountable anymore. She added that New York judges “cannot determine the dangerous standard,” which allows them to detain people they believe will commit crimes if released.
In response, the entire New York Republican delegation introduced the SERVE Our Communities Act, which would give the state incentives to hold repeat offenders accountable, including a $10 million anti-recidivism grant from the Department of Justice.
These shootings that led to the debate about criminal justice reform must be looked into so that criminality in the state of New York will be alleviated.
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