U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from the Bronx, blasted New York leaders over the weekend for failed criminal justice reforms that enabled “a homicidal rampage” in broad daylight last week, resulting in the murders of three innocent people at the hands of a violent, mentally ill man released from custody early.
“The bureaucrat in DOC [Department of Correction] who authorized the early release of Ramon should be fired,” Torres wrote in a fiery letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York Mayor Eric Adams, both Democrats. “Those who cannot be entrusted with public safety should no longer be employed by the people of New York.”
He added that “layers upon layers of government failure” enabled Ramon Rivera, an eight-time criminal whose most recent stint behind bars involved a transfer to the psych ward at Bellevue Hospital, where he attacked a correction officer.
MAYOR SLAMS HIS OWN PARTY AFTER DEADLY HOURS-LONG STABBING SPREE
Ramon Rivera, 51, charged with three stabbing murders, leaves NYPD’s 10th Precinct on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Sam Costanza for the New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Police last week arrested the 51-year-old homeless man for allegedly fatally knifing three people in separate Manhattan stabbings on Nov. 18.
We live in a city and state where the only people who seem to suffer consequences are the victims of crime and their loved ones. Enough is enough.
Torres blasted the city’s DOC as “the worst offender” in Rivera’s case after it released him from custody four months early for “good behavior” despite the Bellevue assault, which he wasn’t even punished for, according to Torres.
Congressman Ritchie Torres speaks during a joint press conference with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in front of 333 E. 181 St., Bronx, on Jan. 17, 2022. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
SUSPECT IN CUSTODY AFTER ‘UNPROVOKED’ NEW YORK CITY STABBING SPREE LEAVES 3 PEOPLE DEAD: POLICE
Read the letter:
“These tragedies are preventable but neither the city nor the state seem to possess the political will to prevent them, despite having the tools to do so,” Torres wrote. “The state refuses to grant the mayor the legal authority he needs to prevent dangerous people from roaming the streets. The city refuses to hold DOC accountable for the early release of a demonstrably dangerous criminal who went on a stabbing spree. The end result is incompetence that is not only destructive but deadly for New Yorkers.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a briefing on Sept. 13, 2023, in New York City. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
Adams also placed some of the blame for the stabbing spree on Hochul, calling on Albany to give city police greater power “to institutionalize people” during a news briefing last week.
Homelessness, mental illness and violent recidivism each continue to plague New York City.
Two tourists were stabbed last week in random attacks, one a 55-year-old from Denmark who was knifed on the Upper West Side, the other a 42-year-old Italian slashed on the hand. Police arrested a 25-year-old Manhattan man for the first attack after his mother turned him in, and they were looking for a woman in connection with the second, according to FOX 5 New York.
SUSPECT IN CUSTODY AFTER ‘UNPROVOKED’ NEW YORK CITY STABBING SPREE LEAVES 3 PEOPLE DEAD: POLICE
The stabbings come as Daniel Penny, a 26-year-old Marine veteran studying architecture in the city, is on trial for the chokehold death of another homeless man, Jordan Neely, who died after Penny grabbed him during an outburst of shouted death threats on a subway car.
The defense rested its case Friday by revealing Neely had an open warrant out for his arrest the day he died.
Mayor Eric Adams speaks to reporters after a news conference in New York City, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Torres has a history of moderate stances and opposes the left wing of his party for its support of pro-Hamas protesters, soft-on-crime policies and other “ivory-towered nonsense” that he argued cost Democrats on Election Day.
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He blasted Hochul last week as “the new Joe Biden” and urged her to get out of the way if Democrats want to maintain their grip on power in the Empire State.
“She may be in denial about the depth of her vulnerabilities as a Democratic nominee,” he wrote on X. “A Democratic incumbent who is less popular in New York than Donald Trump is in grave danger of losing to a Republican in 2026.”