New Queens DA Will Push ‘Racial’ Justice

A self-styled queer Hispanic socialist will probably be the next district attorney for Queens, New York. Public defender Tiffany Cabán defeated an establishment Democrat in a close primary race last week. Her opponent, Queens borough president Melinda Katz, hasn’t conceded, but is expected to lose a recount. Miss Cabán must win in the general election, but no Republican is likely to have a chance.

Miss Cabán, who would be the chief law enforcement officer for nearly two and a half million people, is easy on crime and puts non-white interests over community safety. According to her website, she wants to “end mass incarceration,” “decriminalize poverty and racist law enforcement,” “end the war on drugs,” and “decarcerate and restore communities.” She wants to end cash bail, give felons shorter sentences, and close the city’s jails. She promises “people-powered” and “racial” justice.

Source: Twitter.

Miss Cabán will no longer prosecute “sex work, recreational drug use, and racist laws.” She didn’t say which laws are “racist,” but she probably means fare evasion, loitering, disorderly conduct, trespassing, and welfare fraud. The other boroughs may not appreciate prostitution rackets and welfare fraud going unpunished.

Miss Cabán wants to dismantle the policies that made New York City safer. She explicitly condemns “broken windows prosecution” — the strategy credited with the city’s dramatic crime drop in the 1990s. It stopped serious crimes by aggressively prosecuting minor crimes, but Miss Cabán thinks it was a war on poor people. She will instead focus on “wage theft [whatever that is] and bad landlords” who don’t supply “adequate housing.”

The new prosecutor is very conscious of race. “Too often, racially biased prosecutions trap people in the system when they are most vulnerable,” she writes. She wants reviews of the “racial and economic impact of charges filed” — whatever such things would be — and wants them to be publicly available.

Miss Cabán won’t just protect illegal immigrants from deportation; she’ll prosecute Immigration and Customs officers. “Immigration is not a crime; it is the foundation of our country,” her platform reads. “Too many abuse our immigrant communities and use fear of deportation against them. ICE is an abusive, renegade agency.”

“We’re at a time where people are open to redefining what the role of the DA is, because historically it has served a function to punish the poor,” Miss Cabán told socialist magazine Jacobin. “It’s been one that has disproportionately criminalized our black and brown and working-class immigrant communities. There is an incredible opportunity for harm reduction by bringing in somebody with a more leftist analysis.”

She continues:

My campaign and democratic socialism are very much in line because we are talking about popular control of resources, right? We have a criminal justice system that is profiting off of breaking black and brown bodies, low-income communities, our immigrant communities, our LGBTQIA communities. When we talk about what this office could be, there is a real opportunity to put some change in place that moves us forward in terms of reaching racial, social, and economic justice.

In the same interview, she blamed crime on bad landlords and construction bosses: “What we should be doing instead is going to the root causes of the instability. You can tie it back to the bad actors who are destabilizing entire communities that then drive crime.”

She justifies retaliatory crime against these “bad actors:” “I represent people who are accused of stealing from their employers when in fact their employers are misclassifying workers, stealing their wages, taking advantage of our undocumented communities, preventing people from unionizing.” She believes violent offenders need therapy and “a holistic trauma-informed approach” rather than serious jail time.

Miss Cabán won the endorsement of prominent Democrats such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez represents part of Queens, and won her seat on with similarly radical promises.

Many Queens residents clearly like Miss Cabán. The area is just 26 percent white, and that share is declining. Hispanics are the largest group, at 28 percent, and some voted for Miss Cabán out of racial loyalty. “I don’t know too much about the DA,” Victor Cruz told The City. “I vote every year . . . . I just vote for my Spanish people, I support my people.”

Miss Cabán is one of many self-proclaimed progressive prosecutors who have won elections nationwide in such cities as Philadelphia, Houston, and Boston. Nearly all got money from George Soros. A Soros PAC gave Miss Cabán’s Working Families Party $70,000.

The progressive prosecutors Mr. Soros supports want to transform America’s legal system. One is Cook County state’s attorney Kim Foxx, famous for dropping charges against actor Jussie Smollett. Miss Foxx has implemented several “reforms.” All thefts under $1,000 are now misdemeanors. The city releases “non-violent” criminals if they can’t afford to post a $1,000 bail. Miss Foxx no longer prosecutes anyone who had his driver’s license suspended for financial reasons. She also plans to expunge all marijuana convictions.

Miss Cabán is even more radical. She not only wants to cut way back on prosecution; she wants to use state power against political and racial enemies. She’s the perfect district attorney for non-white America.