Bail, NYC subway crime, IVF for cancer patients

Judges, prosecutors should decide bail

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney is correct. It’s the job of law enforcement to arrest violators when they have the evidence and probable cause to do so [“Officials battle over bail in body parts case,” News, March 8]. They do not, nor should not, wait until a more serious charge can be made before acting. That argument is preposterous.

Here’s a better idea: Repeal the bail reform law and place the question of bail, release or remand back into the hands of our judges and prosecutors.

I agree that there were questions of unfairness in the old bail system, especially among minorities and the poor. But the remedy was not to tie the hands of prosecutors and place our police officers in greater danger.

— Jim Kiernan, Holbrook

The writer is a retired Hempstead Village Police lieutenant.

So the four people, one of whom is homeless, were charged with “concealing a human corpse” and tampering with evidence in connection with the discovery of body parts of two victims strewn around Long Island parks [“Charged, released in body parts case,” News, March 7]. And then they were released without bail, and where was the homeless woman going to go?

What does a suspect in Suffolk County have to do to stay locked up?

— Saul Rothenberg, Rochdale Village, Queens

Subways need what worked decades ago

As violent and terrifying as people think the New York City subway system is, it pales in comparison to the crime-ridden subways of the 1980s and early ’90s. In the mid-’90s [“Troops sent to subways,” News, March 7], competent leaders took control.

Those leaders implemented crime strategies utilizing the NYPD. There was no need for the National Guard, state police or the transit police. In a short time, subway crime became almost nonexistent. For the first time in a long time, riders had a sense of security when entering the subways.

Unfortunately, today’s city and police department leaders don’t seem to know what worked back then. Complicating matters further is the disastrous “bail reform” issue, which is comparable to criminals winning Lotto.

If those in charge now would learn from the past, the use of other agencies or personnel would be unnecessary. It’s time for competent leaders to take control again.

— Joe Alagna, Levittown

The writer is a retired NYPD lieutenant.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is pointing another empty gun at crime. Now she plans to dress our subways with military uniforms and bag checkpoints. The troops are just for show, and criminals don’t carry guns in bags.

She also plans to ban repeat offenders from the trains. How can that be enforced? The state has empowered criminals, demoralized police, handcuffed courts and publicly disarmed licensed gun owners. The city has returned to the 1980s.

Enough touchy-feely stuff. It’s time to take back the streets.

— Kevin Lowry, Fire Island

The writer is a retired Nassau County Police Department chief.

As someone who regularly uses the Long Island Rail Road, Metro North, New Jersey Transit and subways, I welcome any effort to rein in the violence that commuters and residents have had to endure over the past few years in the city.

Yet Gov. Kathy Hochul’s sending in the National Guard to man security checkpoints seems like a show of force for the cameras rather than an effective solution. Making commuters at Penn Station line up to be checked doesn’t even attempt to address the actual fear that commuters have.

We are not afraid of our fellow workers carrying laptops. It is the uncontrolled presence of the mentally ill and homeless drug addicts responsible for random attacks that keep us looking over our shoulders. Moreover, those who commit attacks are typically released back onto the streets within hours.

Instead, put resources into placing more police in the subways and neutralize activist judges and prosecutors who seem to care more about perpetrators of subway crime than victims.

Hochul may get fewer headlines, but she would be more effective in doing her job.

— Chris Dillon, Centerport

Cancer patients need IVF as a precaution

In vitro fertilization indeed should be protected for everyone who needs to seek this miracle to become a parent “IVF process must be protected,” Editorial, March 10].

I am the grandmother of two beautiful IVF children, and I am also a cancer survivor.

For cancer survivors of reproductive age, this may be their only hope to become parents. Because chemotherapy can destroy reproductive cells, they are first harvested and preserved so that in the future, these cancer survivors can choose to become parents through IVF.

After undergoing a difficult diagnosis followed by treatment, it would be tragic to take this miracle of hope from them.

— Patricia DeAngelis Fife, Merrick