Queens hasn’t had a competitive election for Queens District Attorney since Richard Brown was elected in 1991. Brown was the Queens DA for 28 years. He was a relic of the tough-on-crime era that led to mass incarceration in Queens. "Historically, the Democratic Party has had enormous influence in choosing the city’s district attorneys. The races often attract little interest, and low voter turnout allows the favorites of the political machine to win, cementing long, unchallenged tenures. Nowhere has that been more true than in Queens, where the Democratic Party (Queens Machine) has picked the county’s district attorney for decades." With a Tough-on-Crime D.A. Stepping Down, Will Queens Turn to a Reformer?
The Queens Machine now wants another loyalist to be Queens DA: Melinda Katz or Rory Lancman. Two term-limited Queens Machine politicians. Both "figures have won campaigns with support from Crowley’s county machine. In 2013, the party-backed Katz for borough president and Lancman for councilman (representing Fresh Meadows);... Although Lancman voted for him to remain party leader despite his defeat by Ocasio-Cortez, Crowley seems closest to Katz. Given that a new DA potentially could shake up the Queens courthouses, the party machine has a lot riding on the late June primary." Is Queens Ready For a People’s DA? by Theodore Hamm, The Indypendent.
City Limits in the article Council’s NYPD Plan: Add Cops, Reduce Arrests, Avoid Real Changes, reported Lancman's plan to add 1,000 more officers. Rory "Lancman, one of the loudest proponents of the 1,000-cop plan, suggested opposition was simply anti-cop:
'I think where one stands on this issue is to a certain extent driven by whether one views police with hostility or not', mused the Council member...
Today, that legacy won’t be undone by the city simply lessening the penalties for a handful of offenses it once criminalized. That can only be done by carving out the real heart of the Broken Windows strategy: the constant contact and surveillance of marginalized groups of people by police, the primary ushers into a racist criminal justice system. Legislation, therefore, means nothing if it doesn’t mean fewer cops and less surveillance–the opposite of what’s happening in New York. Reforms paired with the addition of resources and technology to the NYPD aren’t reforms at all. If the headcount increases and the NYPD’s ability to track and warehouse information on New Yorkers grows then the Broken Windows net is only cast wider.
Left out of the debate over minor tweaks to the city’s fundamental approach to policing is the fact Broken Windows is a sham. The underlying lie upon which American policing’s most celebrated philosophy was built points to a causal relationship between the policing of low-level crimes and a decline of serious crime that simply isn’t there. Bratton’s selling points have been challenged and outright debunked in books and studies. Even de Blasio, perhaps unwillingly, alluded to that during a recent Rolling Stone interview when he referred to popular notions of what law and order achieved during Giuliani/Bratton days as 'pure myth.'”
Tiffany L. Cabán is "running to transform the Queens District Attorney's office after years of witnessing its abuses on the front line." Unlike Cabán, who has spent her career practicing criminal law as a public defender, "Borough President Melinda Katz and City Councilman Rory Lancman, have no law enforcement experience. Neither has ever practiced criminal law. Neither has ever served as a prosecutor. Rather, both are career local politicians. Katz served in the state Assembly and lost a race for Congress. Lancman has run for just about every available office: Assembly (won), state Senate (lost), mayor (aborted) and Congress (lost)...
Imagine if one of the men charged in Simonsen’s killing asked Katz or Lancman to represent him at his upcoming murder trial. Would either candidate believe, based on the totality of their legal experience, that they possess the competence to represent the defendant? If the answer is no, then neither candidate is qualified to represent the people of Queens as their DA." Wanted: A prosecutor for Queens; The two leading candidates for district attorney are ill-equipped to lead the office by Ryan, former chief of the violent criminal enterprises unit for the Manhattan DA, NY Daily News.
Most progressive groups have now coalesced behind Tiffany L. Cabán for Queens DA. PROGRESSIVES COALESCING AROUND TIFFANY CABÁN FOR QUEENS DA IN NEWEST BATTLE AGAINST NEW YORK MACHINE
BE A PART OF HISTORY IN 3 EASY STEPS!
1. Click Here to Register to Vote Online. If you have a valid ID from the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, you can register to vote online. You must register as a democrat (Party Affiliation) to vote in the June 25th Democratic primary. The candidate that voters choose in the primary is expected to go on to win in the November general election, and could set prosecution policy for decades to come.
2. Review the Queens District Attorney 2019 Election Guide.
3. Click Here to Find Where to Vote. GET OUT + VOTE ON JUNE 25th!