What does it take for New York City to keep a violent criminal in jail?

How many arrests or how violent a crime does it take for New York City to not immediately allow criminals back on the streets? It is hard to say.

The latest round-up of crime stories from New York would be remarkable if not for all the other stories of violent career criminals being released with no questions asked. The first is of Bui Van Phu, who was arrested after sucker-punching a random man in an unprovoked attack. That man, Jesus Cortes, has been put in a medically induced coma after suffering a skull fracture and bleeding.

Phu was originally charged with attempted murder, but the Bronx District Attorney’s Office decided to reduce it to misdemeanor assault, which is not bail-eligible. Phu is on lifetime parole for a sexual assault case. He is a registered sex offender. He put a man in a coma for no apparent reason other than he felt like it. The best New York City can do is hit him with a misdemeanor assault charge and let him walk. He was later arrested again for violating his parole. Does that feel like justice?

If putting a man in a coma does not keep you in jail for more than a couple of hours, how about 40 arrests and a history of assault? Alexander Wright has been arrested over 40 times, including once last year for punching a woman in the face in, you guessed it, an unprovoked attack. Wright has been free to harass women on the city’s subway system and punch people who dare to intervene, including breaking the nose and shoulder of transit worker Anthony Nelson. But who knows? Maybe crime number 42 will be the magic number to keep him in jail.

In New York City, it does not matter how violent the criminal is or how clear it is that they will not abandon their life of crime. Thanks to New York Democrats and their rosy ideas about criminal justice reform, residents are now subject not just to random assaults from career criminals but to possibly seeing those criminals back on the street the next day. Unless, of course, they’re put into a medically induced coma.

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