Coronavirus in NY: Brooklyn DA to stop prosecuting ‘low-level’ offenses

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Tuesday that his office will immediately stop prosecuting low-level, non-violent offenses amid the coronavirus outbreak — and will consider freeing jailed suspects who are “vulnerable to infection.”
The offenses that will now get a pass include driving without a license, trespassing and shoplifting, a spokesman for the office said.
“It’s really just a bunch of low-level offenses — basically anything where there’s no kind of violence or no requirement to see a judge,” Brooklyn DA spokesman Oren Yaniv said.
“Really the idea is just to decrease the number of people in the system.”
One police source called it an “invitation to commit crime”
“He is giving criminals an invitation to commit crime, as if the people of Brooklyn didn’t have enough to worry about,” the source told The Post.
But others thought it wouldn’t be that big a change for Gonzalez’s office.
“What’s new, they do that all the time, now they have an excuse,” said a Brooklyn cop. ”What a joke.”
Earlier Tuesday, a man was arrested in Manhattan for allegedly stealing nearly $90 worth of soap and other cleaning products, cops and sources told The Post.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez said he is asking public defenders to identify clients who are “vulnerable to infection” and being held behind bars to determine if they should be released.
The city’s Board of Corrections also issued a statement Tuesday calling for all DA’s offices to work with the Department of Correction and the court system to identify and release vulnerable inmates — including those who are 50 years old and older.
Lisa Schreibersdorf, executive director of Brooklyn Defender Services, said her office has been in contact with Gonzalez’s office and has already sent over a list of about 20 clients it says should be released from Rikers Island.
“We’re all interested in making sure those people are not exposed to the virus,” Schreibersdorf said.
As for the Brooklyn DA’s office itself, most of its staff are working from home, Yaniv said.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/17/coronavirus-in-ny-brooklyn-da-to-stop-prosecuting-low-level-offenses