OPINION
Every day, I hear from people that I represent who are concerned and alarmed by the rise in crime we’re seeing in our community on a nearly daily basis. Every day, the news is filled with violent crime, affecting families wherever they call home. This is much different from the community I grew up in and not the one I envision for my three-year-old children to grow up in either.
The future looks bleak, but it doesn’t have to be this way. In order to turn around this disturbing trend we’re seeing across the state, public safety needs to be the utmost priority as we head into the 2022 Legislative Session. That’s why I support legislation to help men and women in law enforcement address public safety concerns within our communities.
In an attempt to discourage reckless behavior and mass shootings, I have sponsored a bill to make it a felony to fire a gun in a crowded space (A.4259). To keep repeat criminals off our streets, I supported legislation to restore judicial discretion for our judges, so they can evaluate if an individual is a public safety risk (A.4964). I’ve also advocated for a bill to increase the penalties for harassing a police officer (A.6578). It is important that we implement measures such as these to make all community members feel safe where they call home.
As prisons in our community and across the state face closures, we must also direct our attention to those being released back into communities. We need to ensure that violent offenders are not able to be released before their debt to society is paid, and once they complete their sentences, provide them with the support and resources necessary to integrate back into our communities without reoffending and ending up back in prison.
This is why I proudly support measures to expand access to mental health services. Our state and nation are facing a mental health crisis. As a community, we need to be lifting up one another to make our community a safer, better place to call home, and these are the types of actions necessary to progress in the right direction.
Instead of pandering to calls to defund the police, we should be supporting our heroic men and women in blue more than ever. Parents should feel safe sending their kids to the playground or for a bike ride in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, for so many parents, the risk would be too great. To successfully address the rise in crime and protect New Yorkers, we must ensure that police have the manpower, equipment, and resources they need to safely and effectively do their jobs to keep us safe.
Assemblyman Josh Jensen
134th Assembly District
