Political Arena

NW Bronx officials sound off on RNC

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Last week the Republican National Convention in Cleveland dominated the headlines. 

From Melania Trump’s apparently plagiarized speech to Sen. Ted Cruz being booed off the stage for failing to endorse the Republican nominee, most news media offered wall-to-wall coverage of the weeklong showcase.

“I only watched bits and pieces because I wouldn’t have been able to hold my food down if I watched too much at one time,” Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said in an interview. 

He also made note of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s speech on July 18, which called “fear mongering.”

“To me he seemed unhinged,” Mr. Dinowitz said. “When people talk about the crime rate, and Giuliani in particular because the crime went down during his administration—the crime rate in New York City is lower than at any time during Giuliani’s administration—if you listen to some of these characters, you would think that we were going through the worst crime wave and that there are terrorist attacks galore in these cities, and that’s just not true.”

Mr. Giuliani, who took office the same year as Mr. Dinowitz, delivered a 15-minute speech endorsing real estate mogul Donald Trump, who officially became the Republican nominee for president on July 22.

“I did watch most of Trump’s speech and it sounded like he was mostly yelling and trying to create fear,” the assemblyman continued. “They think the only way they think they are going to get elected is if people are scared, so they would want to vote for a ‘strongman.’”

Mr. Dinowitz will be attending the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia from July 25 to 28 as a delegate from New York. 

“I would expect that at the Democratic Convention … speakers are going to be focusing on issues that people care about,” he said. “On jobs, on making college more affordable, about real issues and not about scaring people.”  

Bronx DA implements ‘vertical prosecution’ system

The office of Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark has begun implementing her new plan aimed at slashing the backlog of court cases in the borough by reducing the number of offices and committees through which each case has to pass. 

The Bronx has more than 2,000 criminal cases that have been open for over a year, and the backlog became one of the key issues of the DA’s race last year, when Ms. Clark ran unopposed.

Ms. Clark’s new plan, dubbed “vertical prosecution,” envisages one assistant DA taking each case from complaint to conviction. Previously, cases would pass through many hands in the DA’s office, with each new assistant having to review the case – and often asking for an adjournment.

“This continuity benefits both the victims and the defendants in a case, as it cuts down unnecessary adjournments and delays which plagued the horizontal approach to prosecuting cases which involved at least three different prosecutors handling a case,” a spokesperson for Ms. Clark said in a statement. “Using this system will help prevent future case backlogs on our end.”

The new model will require the DA’s office to hire more assistants – which means it will be more expensive – but Ms. Clark’s office hopes the gains will justify the cost.

The new model will not, however, be a panacea, the spokesperson conceded. 

“The current backlog in the Bronx criminal justice system is due to many factors,” the spokesperson said. Those include “a shortage of judges and court space, as well as defense delays,” the spokesperson said.

Cuomo signs tampon tax bill

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill on July 21 to end a longstanding tax on feminine hygiene products.

The bill was the result of a larger national movement to end the taxation of products including tampons, panty liners and sanitary napkins in several states.

Activists and officials have called the law sexist because products like condoms and bandages are not subject to the 4-percent sales tax in New York.

The law will take effect in three months.

Jeffrey Dinowitz, Donald Trump, Republican National Convention, Darcel Clark, Andrew Cuomo Tampon Tax

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