New York’s lax approach to crime has claimed yet another victim: a 21-year-old woman raped in her Manhattan apartment over the weekend, allegedly by a career criminal who in any sane world would’ve been behind bars instead.
Jamel McIver had been nabbed 15 times before cutting a plea deal in 2019 in a Bronx sexual-assault-and-burglary case.
And even that didn’t put him away.
Under the deal, McIver was to complete a two-year rehab program.
Then he got himself kicked out for using K-2 — and no one told prosecutors or the court.
That left him loose on the street when he should have been in jail.
And so, authorities say, on Saturday McIver followed the woman into her apartment building and raped her.
The whole affair reeks.
Why did prosecutors cut a sweetheart plea deal with a guy who had 15 priors?
In the 2019 crime, prosecutors say McIver broke into the bedroom of a 16-year-old girl and forced her to fondle him.
And he gets sent to rehab?
Plus, the moment he broke the deal by using drugs, prosecutors should’ve been notified — and McIver locked behind bars.
Instead, the city contractor that placed him in rehab says it sent an email only to McIver’s attorney, who says he missed it.
It’s all too typical of New York’s criminal-justice system: Prosecutors and judges who give perps infinite “second chances.”
Feckless agencies and lawyers who fail to grasp the danger of letting a serial predator go free.
The same blithe contempt for public safety produced the state’s reckless criminal-justice reforms — cashless bail, Raise the Age, unworkable burdens on prosecutors — that have fueled New York’s alarming spike in crime.
As of Sunday, major crimes this year are up 48% over the same period two years ago.
Mayor Eric Adams vowed to bring down crime, and he and the NYPD have managed to roll back murders by 8%. Yet rapes are still up 17%, robberies 42% and car thefts 103%.
To end the horrors, New Yorkers need lawmakers in Albany to fix the laws properly, once and for all, yet they’re resisting.
The public also needs prosecutors, judges, city agencies and groups that handle services like rehab — as well as defense lawyers, who are “officers of the court” — to take their jobs seriously and think about the victims.
Justice is supposed to be blind, not have both hands tied behind her back.
