One try to attack Representative Lee Zeldina Republican candidate for governor of New York, ignited a fierce debate about the state’s public safety law on Friday, hours after a man was charged with assault. The candidate with a sharp weapon was released without bail.
Mr. Zeldin has long made public safety a focus of his campaign against Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat. But he and his allies argued on Friday that the episode in terms of content promotes the need to increase security and tighten New York’s bail laws to make it easier for judges to arrest criminals. certain accused.
“Only in Kathy Hochul’s New York could a madman violently attack a candidate for Governor and then be released without bail,” said Nick Langworthy, New York Republican Chairman, wrote on Twitter. “This is what happens when you destroy the criminal justice system.”
The attack took place on Thursday night outside a Foreign War Veterans hall near Rochester, where Mr Zeldin was holding the first of a series of weekend campaign stops. As the candidate was discussing public safety and the rising cost of living, a man, later identified by police as David G. Jakubonis, slowly approached him.
Video footage of the encounter shows Mr. Jakubonis using a sharp plastic self-defense tool shaped like the face of a cartoon cat when it lunged at Mr. Zeldin. On the video, Mr Jakubonis can be heard repeatedly saying: “You’re done”.
Mr. Zeldin, a four-term congressman from Long Island, was not injured. Others, including his partner, former New York City police officer Alison Esposito, rushed onto the stage and wrestled the man to the ground.
Jakubonis, 43, of Fairport, NY, was charged with attempted second-degree assault, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, and has admitted himself. As of 2020, under New York law, judges have been barred from bail for willful assault, a nonviolent felony; Previously, prosecutors would have had the option of asking Jakubonis to be released on bail.
Jakubonis, a US Army veteran who deployed to Iraq, said on Friday that he did not know who Mr. Zeldin was or if he was running for governor. In a sporadic interview outside his apartment in suburban Rochester, he said he approached Mr. Zeldin, an Army reservist, to try to get his microphone after someone that told him Mr. Zeldin had “no respect for veterans”.
Mr. Jakubonis, a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, says he is battling recurrent alcoholism and is being treated for anxiety. He described his mental state on Thursday night as “checked”, adding that he was “sleeping” within himself.
He assumed that the cat-shaped object he was holding was meant for self-defense. “The ears are plastic, but I guess they are sharp,” he said in the interview on Friday afternoon, still wearing his pajamas. “Then I was settled.”
Voter registration records indicate that he is not affiliated with a political party and a LinkedIn page which appeared to belong to him indicates that he had been “actively looking for work” for many years.
Republicans wasted little time claiming that the attack – and Mr Jakubonis’ release – demonstrated the failure of bail laws enacted by Democrats in recent years. And they’re also looking to use it to their advantage in the New York congressional races.
Zeldin continued his planned campaign bus tour around the state on Friday, despite increased security. At a stopover in Jordan, NY, a suburb of Syracuse, Mr. Zeldin harshly criticized Hochul for not pushing harder for changes to the state’s bail law and vowed to defeat her in November, regardless despite the overwhelming electoral advantage of the Democrats in New York.
“What I’m suggesting is that we cancel the cash bail, the judges have full discretion to consider the level of danger, the risk of flying, the criminal record and the extent of the bail,” Zeldin told a news conference. seriousness of the offence. He said he would also seek to establish a way to prevent magistrates from returning to the streets for potentially dangerous criminal defendants.
Hochul, who was traveling in California to attend an Association of Democratic Governors retreat in Santa Monica, condemned the attack on Thursday night. On Friday, her campaign referred questions to the governor’s office, which did not respond to a request for comment on the state’s bail laws.
President Biden also denounced the plot to attack. “As I said before, violence has absolutely no place in our society or politics,” he said.
The debates over the impact of the New York attack are the latest flashpoint in a long-running controversy over the state’s public safety program and the impact of recent changes to bail laws.
Democrats introduced the changes, which went into effect in January 2020 and have been revised twice since, to try to stop people being held in prison for relatively minor crimes because they cannot apply for bail. More serious offenses, including violent crimes, still qualify for bail under the law.
There is no evidence that the law is responsible for the recent rise in certain crimes statewide, the researchers said. And support rates – which can indicate whether the law is contributing to crime rates – remained stable.
But as certain crimes become more common, the total number of people charged, released, and then reclassified as a separate crime has growngives opponents of the statute – including Republicans and some Democrats, like New York City Mayor Eric Adams – plenty of examples to attack it.
Noting the divisions within her party on the issue, Ms. Hochul tried to plot a middle ground, preferring to discuss her plan to combat gun violence rather than questions about bail reform.
She pushed for success modest changes to bail laws in this year’s generous state budget, includes new language directing judges to consider whether a defendant has been charged with serious harm or has a history of using a firearm when placing bail. Radicals protested, while Republicans and moderates like Mr. Adams said the changes did not go far enough.
In Mr. Jakubonis’ case, the Monroe district attorney may have chosen to charge him with a violent felony, which would have qualified the case for bail, and put him behind bars.
A spokeswoman for Sandra Doorley, the district attorney, declined to comment on whether bail would be required in a similar case under the law before 2020. The spokeswoman also said Ms. Doorley, who Zeldin .’s campaign co-chairwill reuse herself from the instance.
Some Democrats attributed the nonviolent felony charge to the nature of the attack, the attacker’s unstable behavior and the fact that he did not actually hit Mr. his weapon.
State Senator Zellnor Myrie, a Democrat representing parts of Brooklyn, said that he unequivocally condemns the attack, but stressed that the purpose of the bail was to ensure presence. of someone in court – not to convict them before the process takes place.
“My hope is that the enthusiasm with which Republicans use bail money for their political gain will be proportionate to their efforts not only to comment after the events have occurred but invested in crime prevention.
Joe Chenelly, a Republican candidate for the state Assembly who was presiding over Mr. Zeldin, helped bring the man to the ground and eventually restrained him with the tether that had been used to hang the signs. election language.
When Mr Jakubonis said he had deployed to Iraq, Mr. Chenelly, who is also the national executive director of Amvets, an organization that serves veterans, said he immediately changed his approach. . He then worried that it would be a risk to the man’s safety if he released him too quickly after being arrested.
“I stopped him right then and there and made it clear what he was doing was very serious and he was going to have to deal with it,” Mr Chenelly said in an interview on Friday. “But if he needs mental health services, we’ll give him those services.”
Kitty Bennett Contributing research.
