Convicted cop killers should never walk free, but New York’s soft-on-crime parole board is poised to release its 44th such monster since 2017.
For this injustice, you can blame mayoral wannabe Andrew Cuomo and his criminal-coddling successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Also to blame is a network of George Soros-funded pro-crime advocacy groups — call it the decarceration-industrial complex — putting constant pressure on Albany lawmakers.
One of these groups, Release Aging People in Prison, is run by a man who is himself out on parole after being convicted of the attempted murder of an NYPD sergeant.
You can’t make this up.
The parole “reform” agenda in Albany is driven largely by ex-cons, bankrolled by extreme leftists.
Later this month cop killer David McClary will go before the state Parole Board.
In 1988 McClary snuck up behind 22-year-old rookie cop Edward Byrne, who was seated in his patrol car guarding a building, and fired five bullets into the back of Byrne’s head.
It was a horrific crime, but McClary’s odds of being paroled are good.
In February the board sprang Lee Ernest Walker, who fatally shot NYPD Officer Juan Andino in 1984 — the 43rd cop killer set free in the last eight years.
The surge is Cuomo’s doing.
As governor, Cuomo appointed 12 of the current state board’s 16 members, including this doozy, Tana Agostini.
When Agostini worked on the staff of the Assembly committee overseeing prisons, she fell in love with prisoner Thomas O’Sullivan, a convicted murderer notorious for an escape attempt and an attack on another inmate.
She lobbied the Parole Board to get O’Sulllivan released, and succeeded in 2013. Four years later, Cuomo appointed Agostini herself to the board.
Assemblyman Brian Kolb called that choice “malpractice.”
Credit RAPP, which lobbied Cuomo to rid the Parole Board of members with a law-enforcement background.
Caving to leftist activists, Cuomo ordered the board to consider an inmate’s “progress” behind bars — and to weigh that more heavily than the severity of the original offense.
Every year since, the prison gates have swung wide open for cop assassins, including the Black Liberation Army’s Anthony Bottom, released in 2020 after being convicted of pumping 12 shots into Officer Joseph Piagentini as he begged to live.
Cuomo seems to love cop killers. Hours before resigning as governor in disgrace, as one of his last official acts, he chose to commute the life sentence of David Gilbert, imprisoned for his role in a heist that left two police officers dead.
Hochul hasn’t done much better: She should be fully staffing the Parole Board — a $170,000-a-year appointment that requires state Senate confirmation — but 11 of the 16 current members are operating on expired terms.
When Hochul tried to appoint NYPD legal advisor Ernest Hart, she got bulldozed by Albany’s pro-crime leftists, who, in the words of Assemblymember Michaelle Solages, believe that incarceration “has its roots in systemic racism.”
That echoes RAPP’s claim.
RAPP is funded in part by Soros’ Foundation to Promote Open Society ($1.3 million donated to RAPP’s parent organization, in its latest charity filing) and the Soros-affiliated Tides Foundation (more than $1.2 million that same year), as well as the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation and other leftist nonprofits.
Jose Saldana, RAPP’s executive director, was convicted for the 1979 attempted murder of a police officer and paroled from New York state prison in 2018.
Also on RAPP’s staff is convicted murderer Stanley Bellamy, who became involved with the group while still behind bars.
Pandering to RAPP, Hochul commuted Bellamy’s sentence in December 2022, lopping off 25 years. Bingo: Bellamy went from prisoner to parole advocate.
And RAPP isn’t content with today’s lax parole standards — it’s pushing two radical bills to make the rules even looser.
Its Elder Parole measure would permit prisoners age 55 or older who have served 15 years to apply for parole.
Its Fair and Timely Parole Act, explains Suffolk County DA Ray Tierney, would “rig” parole hearings to focus on the prisoner’s current risk to the public, regardless of how egregious the crime — like slaughtering a police officer.
That’s Cuomo’s directive on steroids.
New York’s legislators should be listening to their constituents, not to Soros-funded ex-cons.
New York City voters distressed about crime have their eyes on the upcoming mayor’s race.
But if they want safety, they need to pay attention to what’s happening in Albany, where the inmates and their allies are in charge.
Some crimes are so depraved that the perpetrator should never be allowed to breathe free air. Assassinating a police officer tops that list.
And next year, voters across the Empire State should elect a governor and Legislature that will outlaw the possibility of parole for convicted cop killers.
Letting them walk makes every officer a target.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and co-founder of the Committee to Save Our City.
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