For Schorr: Gang violence game plan
-
- October
- 22
EDITED TO ADD response from District Attorney Janet DiFiore (below)
Westchester District Attorney candidate Dan Schorr announced his plan to tackle gang violence in the county, especially in Yonkers and Mount Vernon, where murders and gun violence are high.
If elected, he said, he would:
• Assign experienced prosecutors to high-crime jurisdictions for longer periods of time.
• Establish a Zero Tolerance Policy for gang-related and/or violent offenses involving handguns. If a criminal is convicted of a violent gun crime, (s)he would go to state prison, not the county jail. Repeat violent offenders would get consecutive, not concurrent sentences.
• Assign the same prosecutor or team of prosecutors from beginning to end, instead of changing at different stages of the case, so help them understand the complexities of a case and complicated nature of gangs.
• Hold off on giving plea deals until notifying the arresting officer(s).
• Send prosecutors and criminal investigators into local schools to teach a comprehensive anti-gang program to increase gang awareness and point out the legal punishments for gang offenses.
• Combat the “anti-snitch” attitude on the street, in part by reinvigorating the Crimestoppers program and developing a stronger witness protection program.
• Work with the corrections and probation officers to identify and monitor known gang members, as well as those at high risk of joining a gang.
• Hold convicted gang members responsible for violating probation curfews, drug use, and other criminal activity.
• Develop standard questions for police to ask anyone they arrested to determine if the arrestee is part of a gang or has information about gang activity.
• Improve ties with federal law enforcement agencies that have the resources and intelligence to help investigate gang activity in Westchester.
“This plan to reduce gang violence is a result of my experience prosecuting violent crime in New York City and Westchester, and from talking with local police, community, and religious leaders to create a realistic and achievable approach to making our streets safer from gangs,” Schorr said. “We can’t bury our heads in the sand from this growing problem, and I’m confident that a multi-pronged solution such as the one I’ve proposed will result in a real reduction of dangerous gang activity in our county.”
And this is what DiFiore had to say about his plan:
“Dan Schorr displays a complete lack of understanding of how gang-related violent crime is currently handled by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office and, indeed, how cases are investigated by the police and prosecuted by my office. Just as he fails to grasp the facts of cases he continually comments on in this race, his so-called plan demonstrates he has no idea what has been going on in the law enforcement community over the last four years.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 3:21 pm by Rebecca Baker.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
gang violence is not the fault of the DA…........
Do you really think that dan schorr going to stop gang
violence?? .....How about increasing police budgets in yonkers instead of cutting them in order to put more uniforms on the street..schorr has very little understanding of being a DA. From his demeanor at the debate it is clear that he is totally unprepared both substantively and by experience to head up and office of the size, scope, and quality of westchester…...The question should be asked of dan’s former bosses in queens and westchester as to how they evaluated his performance while there…...Aside from stating that “he has a strong record as a trial attorney” which is completley meaningless, what else does dan bring to the table…apparently nothing.
Wow, Dan ! This is what you have been doing with your unemployed self?
Newsflash! All 9 points are already being done by the DA’s office.
Ms. DiFiore is one of the best DA’s this County has ever had. She is smart, thoughtful, fair, tough, and has more administrative experience in he little finger, that Dan Schorr has in his entire body, including his ears!
Just yesterday gangs fired gunshots in broad daylight. Instead of giving solutions the DA gives a nonsense political statement. Give us answers, take a stand or the voters will send you packing.
Rather than just make useless political statements that say nothing, why doesn’t our DA actually do something about gang violence? Another gang shooting yesterday in Yonkers. We are tired of hearing statements that say nothing and accomplish nothing. Either do something about crime or go to the unemployment line. The people of Yonkers have had enough.