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ALBANY – Several bills aimed to protect law enforcement officers in New York State were voted down on Wednesday.
New York State Senator George Borrello says some of the proposals included upping the charges for assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, and failure to retreat.
The Senator says he knew lawmakers were facing an uphill battle in pushing the bills forward, however, did not expect to see such pushback.
“We were hopeful that the commonsense members of the democratic conference, especially up in Upstate New York, would look at this as an opportunity to stand for public safety and unfortunately they chose not to,” said Borrello. “This is a really important point because many of those legislators will go back to their district, whether it is in Long Island or Westchester or anywhere up in Upstate New York, and they will tell their constituents one-on-one or in small groups that they are appalled by the attacks on police, they are appalled by the calls for violence against the law enforcement, but when push comes to shove, when they have to stand and vote, they have not voted for Public Safety, they have not stood with law enforcement.”
Last year, the state legislature passed bail and discovery reforms. This June, several police reform bills went through following the outrage over the killing of George Floyd.
Law enforcement supporters like Borrello say they’re concerned about the safety of police officers.
“The highest (ranking) uniformed police officer in New York City was attacked trying to protect people that were doing a pro-police peaceful march across the bridge New York City when an angry violent mob came and attacked those people,” said Borrello. “They were bludgeoned and bloodied, and that is something that cannot be allowed, that can’t stand, that particular offender walked because of bail reform.”
The legislation was modeled after proposals the New York State Sheriffs’ Association put out a week ago.
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