Progressivism is a social cancer, and it has metastasized in New York State.

While the Empire State has no small reputation for championing the most extreme leftist causes and legislation, the state’s new bail reform measures have become the subject of heightened criticism.

Under the new reforms, which were sneaked into the state’s budget and made effective with the new year, suspects arrested for the vast majority of misdemeanors and supposedly non-violent felonies would be issued appearance tickets and allowed to walk free without paying bail.

While the reforms are meant to address a broken system which, theoretically, can allow a wealthy criminal to pay bail and walk free while a poor criminal remains incarcerated without a fair trial, anyone with a somewhat functional brain can see the problem here.

Here is a list of just some of the crimes for which a person can now be arrested in New York, given a court date, and released back into the wild, according to Patch:

…third degree assault; aggravated vehicular assault; aggravated assault upon a person less than eleven years old; criminally negligent homicide; aggravated vehicular homicide; second degree manslaughter; first degree unlawful imprisonment; first degree coercion; third and fourth degree arson; first degree grand larceny; criminal possession of a weapon on school grounds or criminal possession of a firearm; specified felony drug offenses involving the use of children, including the use of a child to commit a controlled substance offense and criminal sale of a controlled substance to a child; promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child; possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child; and promoting a sexual performance by a child.

This is insane!!

In addition to being sent on their merry way, the new reforms also require that the accused be provided with the names and contact information of victims and witnesses involved in the case against them.

According to WSTM, prosecutors will have just 15 days from the time of arraignment to hand over all evidence pertaining to a case, including victim and witness information, to the defense. If prosecutors fail to meet the deadline, cases can simply be dismissed, Albany County District Attorney David Soares told the news outlet.

“’By the way, I have to provide your cell phone number to his lawyer in a few weeks.’ I don’t know how I’m going to have these conversations with a victim,” Soares said.

The reforms, touted by Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo, are meant to mimic those passed recently in New Jersey. They fail, however, to note the fact that New Jersey’s bail reform maintained a key element: the discretion of the judge to consider public safety in determining whether or not an alleged perpetrator can be released without bail.

In New York, however, “judges will only have the power to set bail if they determine that a defendant is a flight risk,” a statement from State Senator Patrick Gallivan explained. “A defendant’s criminal history, or the fact that they may pose a clear physical threat to another person, cannot be considered, creating a system in which a violent offender is likely sent back into the community, unsupervised and able to come into contact with their victim, the victim’s loved ones, and others.”

With the reforms having been effective for two weeks now, re-offenders are making headlines virtually every single day.

According to the New York Post, Gerod Woodberry, who allegedly robbed four different Chase banks in New York City between December 30 and January 8, was allowed to walk free because he allegedly used handwritten notes, rather than a gun, to commit his crimes. “No New York jail can currently hold him, no matter how many times he strikes,” the Post notes.

“I can’t believe they let me out,” Woodberry said, according to sources reporting to the Post. “What were they thinking?”

Nicholas Jordan, of Fairport, was arrested on January 8 for menacing in the second degree, according to a Facebook post from the Fairport Police Department. Jordan “is alleged to have pointed a loaded shotgun at the victim and threatened to kill him,” FPD wrote. “Pursuant to the NYS Criminal Justice Reform laws, an appearance ticket was issued to the subject.”

Jordan “was re-arrested on the same day at 4:01pm (only 2 hours after his release) by the Fairport Police in assistance to the Macedon Police Department for his alleged continued efforts to threaten those involved in the prior incident that he was arrested for today in Fairport.”

According to WHAM 13, Jordan repeatedly called his victim after his release and said, “I’m coming to kill you, bro. You think you got all the guns out of my house? I still have two loaded pistols and I’m coming to kill you.”

State troopers responded to the man’s home and, while there, one trooper said he heard Jordan’s alleged threats.

“… [Jordan] told the victim that he was going to start unloading bullets into the house if [the victim] didn’t come outside,” court papers state.

This time, Macedon Police arrested Jordan for aggravated harassment, but he was released again!!

“I’ve read social media posts, I’ve read editorials in newspapers who believe the new reforms are not that bad, because they only apply to non-serious crimes,” said Republican State Senator Pam Helming at a press conference with Ontario County law enforcement and prosecutors back in November. “I challenge anyone who has this view to look at this list of crimes, to read the legislation and tell me that you believe that manslaughter, aggravated vehicular homicide and rape in the third degree are minor offenses. Tell me, how is promoting obscene sexual performances by a child a minor offense? How is that? How about arson in the third and fourth degrees, selling controlled substances near our schools? Making terrorist threats or committing burglary and robbery in the second degree?”

“This is a reform—we use that term loosely here today, reform—we use this as a way to shift everything from the victims we’ve tried to protect over the years to the criminals,” said Waterloo Police Chief Jason Godley. “It’s not fair to the victims.”

Ontario County District Attorney Jim Ritts argued these reforms hit Upstate New York’s suburban and rural communities especially hard.

“When you have legislation that’s composed out of the five boroughs,” said Ritts, “where they have their own medical examiner’s office, they have their own crime lab, they have a police department with tens of thousands of officers and really only worry about a relatively small portion of the state of New York, where you have a mayor who’s got $12 million to incentivize returning to court by giving gifts and Mets tickets, so you come back—something we realize, in western New York, we realize it’s an obligation that we have.”

And, no, that’s not just an inside joke among New Yorkers. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is actually offering cell phones, tickets to movies, Mets games, and museums, and gift cards to Target, McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Applebee’s to accused criminals to get them to show up for their court dates. This is just too insane for words!!

If they haven’t already, the folks in New York will need to start preparing to protect themselves against the criminals their government clearly values over them.

This article was first published on the Activist Mommy website, and is republished with permission. You may not use, copy, distribute, publish, syndicate, sub-license and transmit the whole or any part of such material in any manner and in any format and/or media without the permission of the original publishers.