• This Month on WestView News
  • Featured
  • Monthly Columns
  • Editorials
  • Articles
  • Briefly Noted
  • WestViews
  • Photos
  • Front Page
  • About Us
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • EXTRA
WESTVIEW NEWS
Menu
  • This Month on WestView News
  • Featured
  • Monthly Columns
  • Editorials
  • Articles
  • Briefly Noted
  • WestViews
  • Photos
 › News › Sixth Precinct Community Council

Sixth Precinct Community Council

Web Admin 03/01/2020     News

VILLAGE RESIDENTS ARE INVITED TO 6TH PRECINCT MEETINGS: Brad Hoylman, NY State Senator (left) and Eliza Orlins, NYC Public Defender, The Legal Aide Society. Photo by Frank Quinn.

By Frank Quinn

Village residents are invited to 6th Precinct Community Council meetings on the last Wednesday of each month. Meetings begin with a report from Deputy Inspector Robert O’Hare, followed by a speakers list and Q&A. There’s a distinctly local vibe at the meetings, where police refer to offenders by first name, and you may hear something intimate about an otherwise impersonal situation.

After attending regularly for about a year, this writer was disappointed by the generally low attendance. But 2020 began with a well-attended meeting reviewing New York’s bail reform law. Many residents became aware of this new law late in 2019 when judges began implementing it, but it’s been discussed at 6th Precinct meetings since last spring when it was signed. Back then polls showed that 55 percent of New Yorkers supported it, but a recent poll indicates 59 percent are now opposed.

Law enforcement professionals argue that the reforms decrease public safety because judges no longer have discretion to keep violent and repeat offenders off the streets. But advocates say cash bail unfairly incarcerates poor people accused of crimes when those with money can buy their freedom. Eliza Orlins, a NYC public defender and local resident, spoke about how her clients feel they’re presumed guilty when accused of a crime because they can’t afford cash bail. She described how a three-day stay in jail can lead to the destabilization of a person’s life— they can lose their apartment or their job, or a single parent might lose their child. These clients often plead guilty just to avoid jail.

That description contrasts with the case of Anthony Manson, recently arrested in Greenwich Village. Records show he’s been arrested 75 times since 1991, with two stints in prison. Two days before Christmas Manson was busted for three burglaries he allegedly committed in Brooklyn but was released on Christmas Day due to the new law. He was arrested on January 3rd in two more break-ins. Prosecutors sought to have him held on $15,000 bail during his January 4th arraignment but he was freed on supervised release. According to court papers, early on January 15th Manson was found inside Center Stage Optique at 45 Seventh Avenue, where he had smashed the door, with a suitcase filled with $3,995 worth of sunglasses and a rock. “And he hit me again when we got him again,” said Commander O’Hare. Manson was arraigned the next day but released again without bail.

While people had strong views on both sides, there was a productive and respectful discussion at the council meeting. Commander O’Hare reported that the 6th Precinct was one of only two precincts in Manhattan South below 59th Street that had a decrease in burglaries and robberies in 2019. But, unfortunately, “we’re trending the wrong way” according to Commander O’Hare, as those numbers are rising in the first months of 2020.


To receive email about future 6th Precinct meetings, send your info to 6thpctcommunitycouncil@gmail.com (note: this is only to receive information—there are no replies to questions). 

 Previous Post

Open Letter to Representative Carolyn Maloney

Next Post 

The Other Side of Bail Reform

Related Articles

After 29 years of dedicated cheerful superintendent service
Why Am I Running?
Release from Jerusalem Prison Inspires Bestseller
Crowdfunding Campaign Update: A Reward Greater Than Cash
The Sixth Precinct Builds the Block
“Whose Post Office? Our Post Office!”
God’s Love We Deliver
The State of Our Health Care and Hospitals: Carlina Rivera Calls for Change
Manhattan’s Vacancy Rate Soars
Veteran State Assembly Member Faces Newbie Challenger
The Ghost of Professional Journalism
The Pines and BLM
2020 Village Awardee: Village Apothecary
July 2020 Community Events from the West 13th Street Alliance
His Name is John
Reboot 2.0
Maggie B’s Quick Clicks
Billy Hart Quartet at the Village Vanguard June 13-14, 2010
The Village Vanguard Reopens Virtually with Live Streaming
The Dark Side of ADA Litigation
Kushner Real Estate in the Village: Another Slumlord
A Vodka Bottle with an Important Political Message; Sex and the West Village; Her Shoes Could be Yours!
God’s Love We Deliver: Proudly Making a Difference, One Meal at a Time, since 1985
The Plight of New Yorkers Who Have No Homes
Feel the Power: Vote on June 23
Suicide at 45 Christopher Street
Michael Sorkin, Greenwich Village Creative, Dies
Airports Are Petri Dishes for Virus
Flying Rome–NYC–Rome During the Crisis: My Personal Experience
Staying Emotionally Connected: Corey Johnson and Westbeth Artists
Victoria Ann Ottomanelli
Craig Gilbert
Live Streaming from St. John’s in the Village
St. John’s in the Village & Invisible Hands: Helping Seniors Stay Home
Death of a Hospital
Research Fights COVID
Neighbor Helps WestView!
BREAKING NEWS—Hope: The situation in China seems to be improving
Wiggins In Love

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

March 2021

Subscribe Now

March 2021

Donate Now

Read the Archives

Sign up for WestView News EXTRA

Copyright © WestView News