Heading toward the June 25th Democratic primary, Albany County District Attorney David Soares squared off against challenger Lee Kindlon this week in a Spectrum debate.
Soares, running for a sixth four-year term, claims the primary was designed to "shut him up." He says the race is about the future of public safety policy in the state of New York, citing his opposition to criminal justice reforms including "Raise the Age" and bail laws.
"The only thing that we need to do in the state of New York is to restore judicial discretion back to the judges," said Soares, "thus enabling prosecutors to actually make arguments about why an individual is a threat to public safety. That individual is not going to be returning once they receive the appearance ticket that this bail reform requires police officers to produce. Police officers have had their handcuffs taken from them. And now we issue appearance tickets.”
Kindlon, who lost to Soares in 2012, entered the race after Soares lost the support of county Democrats for using a grant to give himself a $23,000 bonus. He later returned the funds under pressure.
Kindlon says bail reform has stopped punishing people for being poor. "Right now judges can set bail and can remain people charged with violent felony offenses charged with domestic violence. There are a lot of situations in which judges now can put electronic monitors on people to make sure that they're not going stay near the victim that they just harmed. bail reform has actually been a benefit to public safety," Kindlon said.
Kindlon brands "Raise the Age" an "incomplete law." “Certainly there are good intentions behind it. New York was one of the last states in the union, to charge 16-, 17-year-olds as adults and put them in state prison, which is just barbaric. Now, Raise the Age, it's been implemented is incomplete. We don't have the funding or the resources or the good old fashioned American know how to make these things work,” said Kindlon.
According to Soares, "Raise the Age" has to be changed. “Raise the Age has created almost a state authorized permissive law that allows for 16-and 17-year-olds to carry loaded firearms," Soares said. "Once they are apprehended by law enforcement, they are brought to family court, where there's a presumption that those cases are going to be handled in family court. Despite our efforts to get those cases to remove these young people with loaded firearms off of the streets, we are prohibited by doing so because of a law full of flaws that is only encouraging young kids to continue to commit crimes.”
Soares says Albany County is in a state of emergency due to street violence. “The number one issue that we have in Albany County and in the state of New York is crime, it's crime. And if we allow judges to do what we trust judges to do when we elect them to do, which is to have discretion to keep dangerous people in, to consider dangerousness, we might be able to lift ourselves out of the what I would call the ‘Mad Max: Furiosa’ road that we seem traveling down now,” said Soares.
Kindlon says Soares holds a "doom and gloom vision of Albany." "This is David's record over the past 20 years. The crime problem in Albany County, the highest violent crime rate in Albany County is his legacy. He wants to individualize and blame other people,” Kindlon said.
The candidates also discussed their views on the financial integrity of the DA's office and prosecuting public corruption cases.
Kindlon, a criminal defense attorney, was asked what his message is for voters who worry he might be soft on crime.
“Being a defense attorney is an integral part of the criminal justice system," said Kindlon. "You know, when Babe Ruth came to the Yankees from the Red Sox, there was no doubt that suddenly he would play as hard as he could for the Yankees. I'm not entirely sure the Giants fans are going to be looking forward to playing Saquon Barkley next year as he plays for the Eagles. Being a defense attorney is the other side of the coin of being a prosecutor. And again, I started my career as a prosecutor. And as I'm sure Dave is going to keep pointing out, yeah, I've been involved in some of the most complex criminal cases in upstate New York over the past 20 years. That's an asset. I understand how these cases get put together from start to finish. Now I can help put these cases together to ensure convictions. To ensure more convictions. To ensure safer streets. My trial experience is the real benefit here.”
Soares was asked if he is "less progressive" since losing the support of the Working Families Party. He responded his commitment has always been to protect the most vulnerable communities.
“I did so in 2004, because I believe that we were arresting too many people at the intersection of public health and public safety. Today, I'm back. And I'm the same exact person, just as enthusiastic because these laws are leading to great chaos in communities of color, that quite frankly, if it were happening in any other community, we would have declared a state of emergency. And this cannot be normalized. I haven't, I didn't leave the Working Families Party. The Working Families Party left me,” said Soares.
Early voting runs June 15th through June 23rd. The primary is June 25th.
