VOTE FOR TIFFANY CABAN FOR QUEENS DA, NOT ANOTHER QUEENS MACHINE DA
The Queens Democratic Party (Queens Machine) has kept Richard Brown in power as the Queens District Attorney (Queens DA) for 28 years. "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 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, Rory Lancman, or Gregory Lasak. Two term-limited Queens Machine politicians or an age-limited Queens Machine judge. NYS Supreme Court justices have a mandatory retirement age of 70. "All three 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); in 2017, Lasak was re-elected as one of the six State Supreme Court judges on the Democratic line. 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.
We need Tiffany L. Cabán, a true reformer DA, not politicians like Katz and Lancman, that talk the talk of criminal justice reform during a campaign just because they're subject to term-limits in their current elected positions.
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, and has represented over 1,000 clients on cases from turnstiles to homicides:
"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).
Local politicians hold hearings, draft legislation and issue proclamations. Those are not the tools of a prosecutor. Prosecutors operate in a highly technical legal world governed by precedent and penal law statutes, oral advocacy and strict rules of evidence and ethics. The new DA will quickly find his or herself in a high-level meeting with senior staff, NYPD brass or federal prosecutors.
I fear neither Katz nor Lancman will be capable of engaging in any credible or meaningful way. I fear each will find themselves mere observers to the business of the office they are charged with running...
Sensible criminal justice and prison reform is important and overdue. Elected district attorneys have an appropriate role in these discussions, much like the leaders of the city’s major medical centers have in the health-care policy debate. But just as patients demand their surgeons save their lives first and argue the merits of Obamacare later, victims and survivors of violent crime have the right to a DA whose first priority is to actually prosecute crime.
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.
Mr. Murder knows where all the bodies are buried. Lasak spent decades in the Queens DA's office and earned the nickname "Mr. Murder" due to his number of murder convictions. According to The National Registry of Exonerations there were five Queens murder convictions during Lasak's tenure as the Queens DA office homicide bureau chief which were subsequently vacated and the persons exonerated. These wrongfully convicted persons, who were sentenced to 25 years-to-life, are:
Kareem Bellamy (convicted in 1995, exonerated in 2011);
Todd McCord (convicted in 1987, exonerated in 1994);
Lazaro Burt (convicted in 1994, exonerated in 2002);
Angelo Martinez (convicted in 1986, exonerated in 2002);
Eddie Andre (convicted in 1988, exonerated in 1994).
53 years lost: each person on average was unlawfully deprived of over ten years of his life. At an unnecessary prison expenditure to NYS taxpayers of $3.2 million and an approximate total cost of $12.5 million. Four of these five, or 80% of these wrongful convictions involved official misconduct and they all involved people of color.
Talking the talk of criminal justice reform has gotten DAs elected, but once in office their reforms are slow and disappointing.
Tiffany L. Cabán will be the true reformer DA that will fight to make the Queens DA's office take unapologetic, bold stances in favor of a fair and just criminal justice system.
Meet Tiffany L. Cabán.
I. New Boss, Same Broken Machine
"Early in the morning on Monday, March 11, dozens of Democratic district leaders shuffled upstairs to the county clubhouse, perched above a shuttered C-Town grocery store in Forest Hills. Before the workday started, they rubber-stamped the predetermined outcome: Rep. Gregory Meeks would be the new Queens County Democratic Party chairman.
For the rest of the 800,000 registered Democrats in Queens, here’s the process of picking a new county boss: 1) Former Rep. Joseph Crowley resigns as county chairman to focus on his new lobbying job with the Washington, D.C.-based Squire Patton Boggs. 2) A few outlets report that Meeks is the leading contender to replace him. 3) Word spreads that Meeks will be elected. 4) Meeks is elected. The Queens Machine works.
The Queens Democrats are an insular group, often criticized for acting like an exclusive fraternity – you’ve got to know someone to get in. There wasn’t any sort of a public process to elect Meeks, and the meeting wasn’t publicly announced. The roughly 72 district leaders didn’t sit through any debates among the contenders – in fact, there weren’t any other contenders, since nobody but Meeks admitted to having an interest in the job...
It’s an open secret that Meeks has inherited a weakened county party. A county endorsement means less than it once did, as a shrinking number of party regulars lend their hands petitioning and canvassing. It’s a party that couldn’t even get its own boss, Crowley, re-elected.
But the organization still wields influence. Its ability to coordinate the borough’s council members helped Crowley play a central role in elevating Corey Johnson to the council speakership last year. The borough’s overwhelming Democratic voter enrollment advantage lets the county party effectively pick the winner in every special election. It has also maintained a hold over the judicial system. As journalist Ross Barkan documented in 2017, judges as a rule only get elected with the party’s blessing. The law firm of Sweeney, Reich and Bolz, a trio of Long Island attorneys who have held top positions in the Queens Democratic Party, raked in some $30 million over a decade administering cases in Surrogate’s Court. Gerard Sweeney, Michael Reich and Frank Bolz also serve as election lawyers for county-endorsed candidates, successfully kicking opposing candidates off the ballot. These three white male partners have been a powerful force in the party since the 1990s, when then-county Chairman Thomas Manton worked in the firm. The Democratic Party in one of the most diverse counties in America was, until last month, effectively run by four white men, which critics say doesn’t represent the borough...
Electing Katz will be Meeks’ first real test as county chairman, and he said it’s his main focus until Election Day on June 25." Meet Gregory Meeks: Queens' New Boys, by Jeff Coltin, City & State NY.
Unlike the Katz/Queens Machine Campaign, Tiffany L. Cabán for Queens DA is a People-Powered Campaign!
II. Tiffany L. Cabán & Progressives v. Katz & The Queens Machine
Most progressive groups have now coalesced behind Tiffany L. Cabán and the Queens Machine is backing Katz. While the Queens Machine faced a humiliating defeat at the hands of U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when she defeated its chairman, Joe Crowley, it has quietly continued on. The three lawyers (Gerard Sweeney, Frank Bolz and Michael Reich) who live on Long Island but have effectively run the Queens Machine for over 30 years are still in charge.
"A CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORMER running a bare-bones, grassroots campaign is building momentum to transform the Queens District Attorney’s office for the first time in close to 30 years...
With no Republican in the running so far, the top candidate will effectively win the DA’s seat...
CABÁN’S CAMPAIGN IS centered on healing community trauma, ending mass incarceration, diverting funds from the DA’s office back to communities, stopping the prosecution of minor offenses, and ending the construction of new jails. She’s represented over 1,000 clients as a public defender, and she says running to transform the DA’s office is the next natural step in her advocacy for her clients...
Since the race’s petitioning period ended April 4, Cabán has been endorsed by the National DSA, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Our Revolution, People for Bernie, the sex workers group Red Canary, the New Visions Democratic Club, the National Association of Social Workers, the 504 Democratic Club, No IDC NY, the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, Rockaway Revolution, and the New Queens Democrats...
Cabán’s top opponent at this point in the race is Katz, a career politician with no courtroom experience who’s run for at least six offices throughout New York. Despite her machine backing and questionable past positions on issues from the death penalty to cash bail, Katz has moved closer and closer to Cabán on a number of issues since The Intercept covered the race in March." ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ BACKS TIFFANY CABÁN IN PIVOTAL QUEENS DA RACE, by Akila Lacy, The Intercept
III. A CALL TO ACTION
Go to CabanforQueens.com and support Tiffany L. Cabán's candidacy for Queens DA. Together, we will defeat the Queens Machine on June 25!
We all must come out to vote, if we learned anything from the 2016 presidential election it's that — your vote and elections matter!
Thank you for standing with us, and taking the first steps towards getting involved. This election will be decided by people like you — people who are tired of big monied interests buying their representatives.
But we can’t win this battle alone. Establishment candidates with the financial backing of police and correction officers' unions, and real estate developers have nearly all of the institutional advantages in this system that is rigged to favor bought-and-paid-for politicians. Please take a moment to help bolster our people-power, and share this petition with your friends, family, and community over social media. Thank You!
Vote for People-Powered Justice, Vote for Cabán for Queens DA on June 25!
Not, For Another Queens Machine DA